Prior to 1800, the tributaries around Lake Ontario were so full of spawning Atlantic salmon, they could be caught with shovels. The Lake Ontario population of Atlantic salmon is one of the best examples of a Great Lakes migratory fish and the decline of fish migration. I thought just salmon ran up rivers in BC.Ītlantic salmon (Photo by Hans-Petter Fjeld/Wikimedia Commons) I grew up surrounded by the Great Lakes, but my understanding of the diversity, magnitude and loss of fish migrations in my home place came late. What all these species also have in common is that we have changed their waterscape and fragmented their habitat by dams and other barriers. It plays a central role in local economies and Indigenous cultures.īut BC’s salmon are just a few of the dozens of fish species in Canada that need to migrate from oceans and lakes, up rivers to spawn, feed and grow. The annual return of salmon has a profound impact on the forests and wildlife where these rivers flow. The return of millions of sockeye, coho, chum, Chinook and pink salmon to their rivers of birth to spawn and die each fall is one of the most spectacular animal migrations on the planet. There’s good reason that salmon in BC have come to symbolize fish migration. Spawning Chinook salmon (Photo by Fish On in the Yukon)īefore you read any further, stop and think about a fish migrating up a river.Ĭhances are that fish is a salmon and that river is in BC.
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