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Ann Chaikin | all galleries >> Animals >> Fish & Amphibians > Chum or Dog Salmon
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22-JUL-2004

Chum or Dog Salmon

This salmon had just finished spawning and was floating upside down on the top of the water when Craig picked him up. He had just died. When chum salmon begin to swim up their birth streams they are silver and have no teeth. They are gradually deteriorating as they swim upstream but they persist until they reach the pool where they started themselves as tiny salmon. As they move up the fresh wather their color changes and they grow teeth. (Hence the nickname "dog salmon.") They use the teeth to clear a spawning spot in the stones of the pool where they will spawn. They spawn and then die.

Canon EOS 10D
1/500s f/5.6 at 31.0mm iso400 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Egernhaven22-Jan-2009 06:42
Nice Fish