How do salmon know where their home is when they return from the ocean?
Salmon come back to the stream where they were 'born' because they 'know' it is a good place to spawn; they won't waste time looking for a stream with good habitat and other salmon.
Scientists believe that salmon navigate by using the earth’s magnetic field like a compass. When they find the river they came from, they start using smell to find their way back to their home stream. They build their 'smell memory-bank' when they start migrating to the ocean as young fish.
If a salmon can’t find its stream, some continue to search for the right stream until they use up all their energy and die, but most simply try to find other salmon with which to spawn.
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Seventy-five years of science—The U.S. Geological Survey’s Western Fisheries Research Center
As of January 2010, 75 years have elapsed since Dr. Frederic Fish initiated the pioneering research program that would evolve into today’s Western Fisheries Research Center (WFRC). Fish began his research working alone in the basement of the recently opened Fisheries Biological Laboratory on Lake Union in Seattle, Washington. WFRC’s research began...
Wedemeyer, Gary A.
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Radio-tagged Kasilof River coho salmon
Radio tagged coho salmon from the Kasilof River in Alaska
Chinook Salmon
Chinook Salmon. Photograph courtesy of Michael Humling, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Chinook Salmon
Chinook Salmon. Photograph courtesy of Michael Humling, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
An Alaskan Sockeye Salmon. USGS photo gallery. BLM photo.
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Acoustic-tagged juvenile Chinook salmon being released.
Drano Lake Sockeye Salmon
Adult Sockeye Salmon in Drano Lake, WA on July 15th and 16th 2015.
PubTalk 2/2015 — Undamming Washington's Elwha River
by Amy East USGS Research Geologist
- Hear about river response to the largest dam removal in history.
- Causing disturbance as a means of restoration: how well does it work?
- Will legendary salmon runs return?
Coho salmon
Coho salmon spawning on the Salmon River in northwestern Oregon. This photo was taken during a coho spawning survey conducted by the Bureau of Land Management in November 2014.
