The salmon is a migratory fish of the family Salmonidae which spawns in redds (gravelly beds) of fast-flowing headwaters of upland
rivers but migrates to feed in the sea.
In the British Isles, salmon run up most of the rivers of Scotland, Wales, the west coast of
England and some of the rivers of the south coast. Many east coast rivers, including
the Thames, Trent and the Tyne, once had fine salmon runs but the fish have long been
absent from them because of heavy pollution.
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Salmon were once so plentiful in the Thames (and hence cheap) that London apprentices
threatened to strike if they recieved salmon more than four times a week.
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The tiny trout-like salmon with shadowy mottling on their flanks and a line of red spots
along their lateral lines are known as parr. They feed avidly on flies and the tiny
organisms which live in the water as they make their way to the mouth of the river and
the open sea. During their journey to the sea they loose their barring and red spots
to become silvery fish which are known as smolts.
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The avid feeding habits of the young parr and smolts lead them to readily take the
angler's bait but it is illegal to take any immature salmon from the river; any fish, that
is, which measures less than twelve inches from the tip of the snout to the fork of the
tail. |
The smolts grow rapidly in the sea and a year or more later, return to the river in which
they hatched to spawn. They are infamous for their journeys upstream through the
fast flowing headwaters and their powerful leaping of obstacles such as waterfalls.
It is believed that the salmon recognises the river in
which it hatched by the taste and smell of its water.
Having spawned in the same gravelly redds where they themselves hatched, the fish (now known
as kelts) drop back downstream. Most of them have spent their lives and die shortly after
spawning although some, very few, do return to the seas and may posibly return to spawn
another season.
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The disgestive organs of the salmon atrophy as they return to the fresh water from the
sea and they do not eat once they have entered the river of their hatching. It is thus a
mystery as to why the fish will take the bait of the many anglers who hunt them during
their upstream migration. |
The esuarine salmon runs were annually netted by commercial fisheries well into the
twentieth century as on the rivers Avon and
Stour at
Christchurch in Dorset which was famous
for its salmon. Now, most of the fish which are bought at the fishmonger or supermarket
are commercially grown on salmon farms. Despite this, the fish are prized above all other
game fish by recreational fishermen.
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Traditionally, the members of the family
Salmonidae are known as 'game fish', other freshwater species
being known as 'course fish'.
Other Salmonidae found in the rivers of
the British Isles are the brown trout, rainbow trout, seatrout and the grayling.
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Heatwave, August 2003
The lowering of oxygen levels in the waters of the river Tyne during the heatwave in August 2003 caused hundreds of salmon and tens of sea-trout to die in the river, mostly in the tidal stretch between Wylam and Newburn. The Environment Agency expected to remove about fifty of the dead salmon a day.
see also: Weather in the UK
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| | | DORSET
ABBOTSBURY
The mackerel fishery at Abbotsbury flourished until modern times with more fish often being caught than could be sold. By the last quarter of the 20th century the nets were frequently hauled in empty. Sometimes a salmon would be caught and this was automatically the property of the lord of the manor - called a "red mackerel", its ownership might be less clear-cut.
CHRISTCHURCH
The Avon and the Stour, together with the harbour, have provided Christchurch with ample supplies of fish and Christchurch was famous for its salmon in days gone by. In the 19th and early 20th century the harbour was netted commercialy for this prized catch although today angling for salmon has become a recreational passtime caried on from the private fisheries which own rights to various parts of the rivers.
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