The salmon family is a very valuable fish species. In the consumer market, this fish has a high price, the meat serves as the basis for the preparation of many delicious dishes, and red caviar is especially popular with gourmets.
Salmon family
Salmon and trout are collective names for fish of the salmon family. In fact, the list of representatives is quite extensive: salmon include pink salmon, grayling, red salmon, omul, salmon, chum salmon, taimen, whitefish and some others. The habitats of salmon are the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, waters of middle and northern latitudes, a large spawning ground is located in Kamchatka. These fish species live in the seas, and they go to spawn in fresh waters, therefore they are classified as freshwater and anadromous. There are breeds, including cage salmon and some species of trout, which are farmed artificially.
The largest representatives of the salmon family are salmon, taimen, chinook salmon, which can weigh up to seventy kilograms. The whitefish squad is characterized by small size.
The structure of the body of salmon very much resembles herring, so for a long time their representatives were considered relatives of the herring. But having studied well all the features of salmonids, scientists have singled them out into a separate family.
The elongated body of fish covered with round scales is compressed at the sides, has a lateral line running along the side, and most representatives of these breeds have nakrap, i.e. spots on the body. A characteristic feature of the breeds of this family is the presence of two fins on the back: one of them has a large number of rays, and the other is non-rayed, or fatty. Salmonids also differ in some other features: for example, they have a peculiar connection of the swim bladder with the esophagus, there are premaxillary and maxillary bones around the mouth, the eyes are covered with transparent eyelids.
During the spawning period, the fish are transformed: the silvery disappears, and the color becomes bright; black and red spots appear on the body; in males of certain species humps appear (the name "pink salmon" is explained by this); the teeth become larger and the curvature of the jaws changes.
Spawning period and offspring
Among the salmon family, centenarians are sometimes found, but often the spawning period becomes the death of a large number of individuals that go to the fresh waters of rivers, especially for Pacific fish: pink salmon, chum salmon, sockeye salmon. The record for survival after spawning was recorded in the Atlantic salmon: it was able to give birth to offspring five times.
Underyearlings (fish fry) of pink salmon first stay in coastal waters, then leave them; chum salmon fry do not linger near the coast for a long time, almost immediately starting their marine life; chinook salmon have offspring in rivers for a long time (especially males); the young generation of sockeye salmon can go to sea even 2-3 years after emergence, staying in fresh water for a long time.
Salmon species
Among the Pacific salmon family, the most numerous representative is pink salmon, the maximum length of which reaches 76 cm and weighs about 5.5 kg.
Chum salmon is widespread in the Far Eastern seas, the average size of the running fish is approximately 60-65 cm, and the weight is about 3 kg, but there are also larger individuals (up to 1 m in length).
The largest and most valuable representative of the salmon family is the chinook salmon, which lives off the coast of America and Kamchatka. The average length of this fish is 90 cm, there are also quite large specimens, the weight of which reaches 50 kg.
The excellent taste of chinook salmon has long been known: among the Americans, this fish was called the "king-salmon", and the Japanese call it "the prince of salmon".
Sockeye salmon prefers cold waters and lives mainly off the coast of Alaska. In the waters of our country, it is found in the rivers of the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Kuril and Commander Islands. The red salmon meat is excellent in taste, the body length of the fish can reach 80 cm, and the weight is 2-4 kg. Canadians, Americans and Japanese breed sockeye salmon for sport fishing.
Fishing
Valuable tasty meat and a delicacy loved by people, red caviar, have made the salmon family a popular commercial species. The illegal catch of this fish is reaching a large scale, as a result of which certain species are included in the Red Book and require constant protection.
