This time of year, the urge to catch a salmon - as a photograph - is hard to resist in my neighbourhood. This autumn has been unusually dry, so only recently has there been enough water so that the salmon could spawn in our nearby creek. Click here to see my "Hyde Creek" painting, of which I have sold a few prints.
I've got pictures of them on JSVB and in my archives. Today's picture shows a fish that's just a couple of arm's-lengths away. Magnificent creature.
At this stage of their lives, the salmon are spawning. Their bodies are filled with bitter-tasting sex hormones that make them unpalatable except to animals that lack tastebuds. Apparently, only the heads are good to eat. If the bears or the coyotes are around, the fish corpses will have been decapitated.
Next spring, the fertilized eggs will hatch, and the creek will be filled with fingerlings. After mating, the adult salmon immediately die, and their bodies either feed the animals or decay in a most smelly way, becoming fertlizer for the local plants.
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