Salmon Spawning.

[sapelesam]

I've always wondered why salmon change shape, around the head and the humped back, prior to breeding and dying. Can anybody enlighten me?

[melv16]

The females must find it attractive.

[sapelesam]

I'll see if I can make myself look that ugly, I'm half way there.

[Tilly2]

They become really ugly, don't they?

[sapelesam]

Bucket of frogs ugly.

[alavahalf]

In the spring when they return to the river where they were born, they dont eat again prior to spawning in the autumn/winter. So they lose a vast amount of weight and the body changes shape dramatically. They are close to death by the time they spawn and nearly all die soon after.

[Tilly2]

I saw salmon in a salmon run on the Columbia River. They were huge! How do John West get them into a can?

[sapelesam]

Does that explain the hump alavahalf, and the mouth that doesn't seal or close properly.

[sapelesam]

I think they use a cookie cutter Tilly.

[Tilly2]

...I meant a salmon ladder...

The cookie cutter sounds about right, Sam.

[alavahalf]

Both male and female have skeletal changed when they return to freshwater to breed. The males develop a hook on the lower jaw .. it's called a kype.

[alavahalf]

'Skeletal changes .. not changed'

[melv16]

They look as they're from Stoke :-)

[chanel5]

I had to google this to find out what you were all talking about. I never knew about this process of change in salmon at spawning. Fascinating. You are never too old to learn something new. Thanks, guys, for the education.