According to the statistics of relevant departments, since the beginning of the long holiday in 1999, there have been 20 years since then, and the "Eleventh" period has always been one of the most turbulent periods for the flow of Chinese. If the influx of people from major first- and second-tier cities into townships during the Spring Festival is an orderly migration like migratory birds, then the population flow of "Eleven" is brown movement in high school physics textbooks, full of uncertainty: ticket prices, international situations and even douyin pushes may affect every compatriot who is ready to travel.
Meanwhile, millions of salmon are on an epic journey. The beginning of their journey was long before human history recorded, the members of their journey involved countless kinds, their destinations were not swayed by objective factors, and the end of their journey was the end of life.
The migrating red salmon stained the entire river red
This "eleven" Emma and Tianhong, like tiny particles in Brownian motion, came to British Columbia, Canada (hereinafter referred to as "BC"), and were very fortunate to witness the last part of the salmon's journey. Each of the fish that strives to move upwards is a deep inspiration to us, which has contributed to this issue of Little Emma's Amusement Park.
<h1>Great journey</h1>
There are five main types of salmon migrating to B.C.: Pink, Chum, Coho, Sockeye, and Chinook. Every year, millions of salmon complete their 3-5 years of foraging and growing in the Pacific Ocean, and after reaching sexual maturity, they regroup and collectively return to the Canadian province of BRITISH to breed offspring.
Illustration of different species of salmon
The road to fertility is not simple for all animals, but salmon choose the most difficult one. Humans still can't explain how they found their way home from the vast Pacific Ocean, with some saying that the trace amount of iron in the salmon's brain is like a compass, while others say that the salmon's brain suddenly gets a map of its home at the moment of sexual maturity.
But what is known is that because eggs and juveniles cannot survive in the sea, sexually mature salmon must cross the fjord, swim upstream along the junction of rivers and seas, weave through crisscrossing channels, and travel for months to finally return to the creek where they were born.
Salmon returning from the Adams River in BC Province
As carnivorous fish, salmon in the sea are extremely fierce and feed on small fish. Before reaching the freshwater area and migrating upstream to the river, the salmon will abandon the digestive system of the ocean, stop eating and drinking, and devote all the energy they have stored in the ocean to this last journey.
Salmon has a powerful digestive system
Female salmon excrete their eggs in rapids and shoals, and after male salmon have fertilized their eggs, they will die within two weeks of exhaustion, ending their lives.
Red salmon spawn in shoals
The eggs hatch into small fish in the coming weeks, which travel down the river to the Pacific Ocean to continue the cycle of life.
Salmon fry
<h1>An offering of love</h1>
Salmon migrate far more than reproduction, if streams are the blood vessels of nature, then they are the red blood cells in the blood, providing nutrients for the animals and plants that live here.
Seals are feasting on
Salmon migrate intensively in October every year, which is the time when brown bears and black bears concentrate on replenishing their nutrition before entering hibernation. Salmon, which flock to the river with a large number of roe, are a flowing rotary sushi for the bears.
Sashimi entrance, effortless
Given the need to replenish a lot of protein in the shortest possible time, their own food is limited and the amount of ingredients is very rich, and the black bears and brown bears along the stream will only choose mature females to start. Eating fish is also "wasteful", swallowing all the roe in the mother's belly in one bite, and throwing most of the remaining fish meat casually at the side of the stream.
Salmon carcasses that were still on the west side by black bears
But the dead fish thrown on the ground will not be wasted, and soon all kinds of carnivorous birds, insects and other animals will come to digest the remaining fish meat, and the fish bones will gradually be absorbed by the earth and become soil nutrients. It is said that when bear fishing is most active, the stream will be filled with fishy smells due to the presence of dead fish everywhere.
The creek is filled with fishy smells
Salmon that are fortunate not caught by bears will become feed for juveniles after they die from production tasks. Juveniles live in streams for weeks, and dead salmon are their most important source of food.
This time, Tianhong and Emma had the honor of having a close encounter with the black bear. Inside Elk Falls Provincial Park in Campbell River, Vancouver Island, B.C., we walk along the Canyon View Trail by the creek and occasionally see the carcasses of dead fish on the ground.
Emma and Tianhong are happily walking on the hiking trail
Just as we were considering whether there were black bears nearby, behind a dense tree around the corner, we met a black bear with a big fish in its mouth. We were stunned by each other, presumably the black bear did not expect our appearance. Holding each other for two seconds, just as Tianhong reacted and quickly raised his camera to take a picture, the black bear turned around and ran, splashing in the stream, and disappeared from sight in a few seconds.
The little black bear in the middle of the ass running away
<h1>Protect salmon</h1>
In Canada, although human disruption and impact on salmon migration has been minimized as much as possible, the number of salmon migrations and the survival rate of fish eggs are decreasing with cyclical rises and falls in river channels, rising water temperatures due to global warming, and global salmon fishing.
The Canadian government only allows people to "fly fish" by the creek
Fish caught must be returned to the creek
In order to maintain salmon populations, many streams have artificial breeding bases. Since each salmon swims as far upstream as possible, people choose to intercept the fish in the middle, screen out the salmon that are already full of roe and semen, and knock them out and classify them according to sex. The staff cut open the female's belly, pulled out all the roe, and then mixed the semen of the male into the roe and gently stirred it by hand to fertilize.
Employees at fish farms perform artificial insemination
Although this may seem inhumane, it is also a compromise given that all fish will die after fertilization is complete, and the survival rate of eggs without artificial protection is extremely low.
The staff is showing us the results of artificial insemination
After talking about Canada, let's talk about the salmon migration in Heilongjiang, China. In the past, the Heilongjiang, Ussuri and other rivers in Heilongjiang Province blocked the river channels every time the salmon migrated. After several generations of "unremitting efforts", such a grand situation has ceased to exist.
Like them, they are reduced to lunch on the plate
For nearly 30 years, China has also realized the seriousness of the problem, because salmon migrate to the streams back to their hometowns to spawn, so the more they catch, the fewer salmon migrate. Looking at the blocked fish in Russia's rivers, the relevant Departments in China have been painfully determined and have begun to stipulate a strict fishing ban period, and regular artificial breeding and stocking are carried out every year.
The border management police are conducting a law enforcement inspection of the boundary river during the "salmon period"
By this year, Heilongjiang Province has been stocking fry into various rivers with migratory salmon for more than 30 consecutive years. Although it is impossible to restore the prosperity of the past, it has at least been freed from the danger of extinction.
Heilongjiang Fuyuan salmon migration grand
More importantly for us, there is an international agreement on the amount of salmon caught, each country has a certain quota, and thanks to China's contribution to the protection of salmon migration, we have maintained our own fishing quota.
I think that the reason why migration can move and inspire people is actually because salmon's life is like life: when you are young, you look forward to distant places, when you become an adult, you work outside, and you return to your homeland when you are old. However, no matter what kind of storms you experience outside the country, or go abroad for further study, or struggle in a foreign country, the older you get and the farther away from home you are, the more inspiring the call of your hometown becomes.