Types of salmon. Far East salmon (photo)

The diversity of marine life can surprise people. For today, there are several thousand species of fish found in the seas and oceans. Against this background stands alone one species, which refers to salmon-like. This is due to the fact that the fish belonging to this family are not completely marine. After all, part of their life passes in the seas, and the other - in the rivers.

Origin and description

Salmon belong to the group that appeared long ago: according to some sources, its ancestors originated on Earth millions of years ago. Although they took their present form much later. It is believed that about fifty species belong to this family.

The length of salmon can reach even up to two meters. In this case, there are also species that are small enough - only twenty or thirty centimeters. The weight of this fish is also a serious indicator. For example, such salmon species as taimen or salmon reach seventy kilograms.

Their structure is as close as possible to the herrings. The body, compressed laterally, is distinguished by the presence of a lateral line. On the middle part of the belly there are multi-fins, while on the thorax there are no spiny rays. Characteristics of salmon are spots that are his "calling card". After all, even the name itself, which has an Indo-European root, means "to become speckled."

Kinds

This family includes enough varieties. Among them - river or lake trout, for example, Sevan ishkhan, Atlantic, a bright representative of which is salmon, Siberian, char, and, of course, Pacific or Far Eastern salmon - pink salmon, chum salmon, etc.

There are different types of salmon and life expectancy. This is due to the unequal time of their freshwater life. Hence the difference between species - according to a complex and sharply simplified age structure. Salmon is a fish that easily changes the way of life, its appearance and color, changing depending on the conditions.

The meat of this marine life is excellent in taste, so many species of salmon have become targets for fishing.

Pacific salmon

This species is known in our country under a different name. This is the Far Eastern salmon. His family includes six representatives who die after spawning. More often than not, the Far Eastern salmon in Russia is found in Kamchatka, the Kuriles and near the island of Sakhalin. The Far Eastern salmon is monocyclic. Soon after spawning in fresh water this fish dies.

Far Eastern salmon is found throughout the northern Pacific Ocean, including the Japanese, and also the Sea of Okhotsk with the Bering Sea. It does not form large clusters and is held in the upper layers, usually up to ten meters deep. Salmon food is very diverse. It can be small pelagic fish and its juveniles, crustaceans, pteropod molluscs, small squid, worms, sometimes even jellyfish and ctenophores. Fish from the Far East in the marine life period is covered with silvery, easily falling scales. There are no teeth on the jaws.

It is an ancestral genus, spawning in fresh waters and nudging in the sea. There are six different representatives known: pink salmon, red, chum, chinook, coho and sima. Far Eastern salmon spawns only once in their short life, dying after spawning.

Places for spawning

Sexually mature males and females wear a wedding attire. They acquire a special form of the body and its color. For spawning, they choose mainly deep-water areas of rivers, where fast flow. Such a Far Eastern salmon, like chinook salmon, uses quite specific places for spawning. This may be a place before a roll that has a sufficient depth, and before the rapid flow of water, especially in the headwaters of rivers in Kamchatka.

Far Eastern salmon during spawning can also enter into lakes with sandy-pebble soil with a well-defined underwinter stream. In the small tributaries or the headwaters of the rivers, pink salmon and chum multiply, selecting areas downstream.

Features of spawning

During the migration to the spawning grounds this fish does not feed. It exists solely due to the stock accumulated in the muscles, therefore it is extremely depleted in the way.

Breeding salmon during spawning spawns fertilized caviar in the ground, so it lays it in places where there is not a silted bottom, but covered with pebbles or gravel. A female, surrounded by one or more males, keeps its head against the current, with strong tail movements spreading the soil. After spawning, salmon mass mortality is observed. The most depleted individuals die already on the spot of spawning, while others deem it a current where they die on the road to the mouth.

Often the bottom and river banks are literally covered with dead fish. In the Far East, this phenomenon is called a "snekoy". Ravens, seagulls and a variety of animals gather up to such an abundant food, up to the bear.

Pink salmon

This is the most numerous representative of the Far Eastern salmon. Pink salmon is somewhat different from other varieties. For example, on its last fin there are round spots of black color, with the tail stalk much thicker. In addition, the pink salmon is relatively small. This fish rarely grows longer than eighty centimeters, and weighs up to five and a half kilograms.

Keta

In terms of size, this representative of Far Eastern salmon is in the second stage after pink salmon. However, the chum differ in that it has no spots in the color of the body. In addition, and entering the rivers for spawning practically does not lead to its bright external differences related to the mating season. However, the size of the chum is somewhat larger: the length is up to one meter, and the mass is up to fifteen kilograms.

"Noble" view

This most famous salmon - salmon - reaches a length of one and a half meters, and in weight - almost up to forty kilograms. The meat of this fish is highly valued, especially when it is already obese before spawning. This species spends most of its life in the sea. For example, this salmon in Karelia, where it occurs in the Onega or Ladoga lakes, can form a separate subspecies. At the same time in the sea salmon prefers to stay close to the shore.

She has an elongated body with a very small silver scales. The back, as a rule, is darker, with a bluish tinge. Fins rather short: with dorsal and caudal - gray with brownish tint, and the rest - light. The head of the salmon is somewhat elongated, in the wide mouth a lot of strong teeth. Atlantic salmon, or salmon, like all other representatives of the species, has a characteristic fat fin.

Lenok

This fish is represented by two strongly pronounced forms - stupid and pointed. They differ not only in their appearance, but also in their eating habits. For example, cornflowers prefer to feed on only the larvae of insects, while the sharp ones prefer rodents.

Distributed Far East salmon lenok in Siberia and the Far East in lakes and rivers. There are many of them in Mongolia, as well as in Western Korea and China. West of the Urals, it is not. Lenok prefers cold, fast rivers, especially their upper reaches.

Large specimens live alone, those that are smaller gather in a few flocks. Lenok grows up to six to seven kilograms and ninety centimeters in length.

It grows at a slow pace. The shape of his body is similar to the whitefish, with a shallow but dense scales, bruskovatoe in appearance. The color of the lenok expresses the conditions of this fish: on the back and sides is a dark brown color with numerous dark spots. The abdomen is light.

At the onset of spawning maturity, red speckles appear on the lateral areas of the body. The Lenok can live up to fifteen years, reaching sexual maturity by the fifth year. Nerestitsya this salmon at a depth of one and a half meters in May or June.

Taimen

This subspecies occurs in practically all large rivers and lakes in the Altai, the Far East and Siberia. Taimen is a predator, growing to a length of one meter and weighing up to sixty pounds. Among other representatives this fish from the genus of Far Eastern salmons is a long-liver, lives up to fifty-five years.

Small specimens on the sides have up to ten transverse dark strips, as well as dark x-shaped specks. During the spawning period, the body of the taimen is painted copper-red.

This salmon lives exclusively in pure water and is considered an ideal predator. He eats fish, although sometimes he likes to eat and swim across the river with rats, squirrels, mice.

Taimen is not an object for fishing. He never moves in a flock, which lives in deep channels or under rolls in pairs or alone. The most catchy habitats of a large taimen are the basin of Lake Baikal, the Amur, Yenisei, and Lena rivers. In the mountain rivers of the south of Siberia and the northern Sayan large specimens are very rarely caught. Moreover, for many kilometers around such large cities as Yakutsk, Ulan-Ude, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk and other taimen have not been found for a long time. The quality of the meat of this fish is improving towards the north.

Atlantic salmon

The lifestyle of this family is practically the same as that of Pacific or Far Eastern salmon. This species includes the Baltic, Caspian and Black Sea varieties, as well as salmon, trout, which lives in streams and lakes, and trout. The latter, in particular, prefers to live in the northern seas, although it has a great attachment to fresh water. Even when this type of Atlantic salmon is in the marine waters, it continues to stay near the shore. As for trout, experts believe that it originated from trout. This is due to their external similarity.