salmon

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salmon [L salmō]. The large fish with pinkish flesh (genus Salmo salar) has long played an important role in the Celtic imagination, usually as a repository of otherworldly wisdom, especially in Ireland and Wales. A relief found in Gaul shows a human head between two great salmon. In a Gallo-Roman altar a fish (probably a salmon) is shown talking into the ear of a human head. Nodons, ancient British god of the Severn, is shown hooking a salmon. Although salmon swim from salt to fresh water to spawn, Irish and Welsh traditions often portray them as inhabiting wells, pools, waterfalls, or other fixed locations along important rivers like the Boyne or Severn. Two salmon of wisdom or knowledge lived in Ireland, at Linn Féic along the Boyne and at the falls of Assaroe on the Erne, both caught by Fionn mac Cumhaill. In the better-known story of the two, the bard Finnéces had been fishing for the salmon for seven years when the boy Fionn happened along. Finnéces thought his patience had paid off when he caught the salmon and began cooking it over a fire; but Fionn touched the cooking salmon with his thumb, burning it, and thrust it into his mouth, thus giving to himself the otherworldly wisdom Finnéces sought. Here the salmon bears a name, Fintan (1). When Fionn spears the salmon on his own at the falls of Assaroe it is known as Goll Essa Ruaid [the one-eyed fish of Assaroe]. A comparable Welsh salmon of wisdom swims under the name Llyn Llyw along the Severn and is ‘the oldest of living creatures’, ‘the wisest of forty animals’; it tells Culhwch where Mabon is being held prisoner. Leixlip, Co. Kildare, on the Liffey also has strong associations with salmon [ON leax hlaup, salmon leap; Ir. Léim an Bhradáin].

In Irish tradition salmon gain wisdom by eating the nuts of hazel trees; the number of spots on the salmon's back shows how many nuts he has consumed. Nine hazels of wisdom grow at the heads of the seven chief rivers of Ireland and at Connla's Well and the well of Segais. In Osraige [Ossory] salmon eat berries to the same effect. If salmon do not embody wisdom, they may carry important knowledge between persons, just as ravens delivered messages to the Norse Odin. The Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym (fl. 1320–70) claimed that expressions of love for the beautiful Morfydd might be carried by salmon.

Humans and salmon interact in a variety of other ways. Several personages are transformed partly or completely into salmon, including Amairgin (1), Fintan mac Bóchra, and Taliesin, just as Loki in Norse tradition once became a salmon to escape detection. Tuan mac Cairill becomes a salmon that is caught by a woman, who eats him and then gives birth to him again in human form so that he may tell the early history of Ireland. For Mongán, becoming a salmon is just one of his powers. The ‘soul’ of the hero Cú Roí resides in a golden apple inside a certain salmon; to kill him, Cúchulainn has first to kill the salmon with Cú Roí's own sword. The beauteous Lí Ban (2) of Lough Neagh becomes a salmon except for her head. The mother of St Fínán Cam is impregnated by a salmon when she goes swimming after dark. Ailill throws a ring into the water, which is swallowed by a salmon and retrieved by Fráech (folk motif: 736A). St Kentigern also finds a ring in a salmon, which explains the presence of salmon in the seal of the City of Glasgow.

Modern commentators have been at a loss to explain the mythic power of the salmon. Its swimming between salt and fresh water may have suggested the capacity to pass between worlds. The ability to swim against the stream over waterfalls easily excites human admiration; see SALMON LEAP. The Roman poet Catullus (1st cent. BC) equated the leaping salmon with an erect phallus. Pinkish salmon flesh may evoke human flesh. Seán O'Faoláin (1947) suggested that the Irish, lacking serpents, may have adopted the salmon as an alternative transformation of the sun-god. OIr. eó, eú, éicne, bratán, maigre, magar (as spawn); ModIr. bradán, diúilín (young salmon); ScG bradan, iasg geal [bright fish]; Manx braddan; W eog, samwn; Corn. ēok; Bret. eog.

Bibliography

See Richard I. Best , ‘The Tragic Death of Cúroí mac Dári’, Ériu, 2 (1911), 18–35.

salmon Fish of a number of species including Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), and chinook, chum, coho (or silver), pink (or humpback), and sockeye (or red), which are varieties of Oncorhynchus and in the UK must be described as red or pink salmon. Although wild salmon are caught on a large scale, most of the salmon available in Europe is farmed in deep inlets of the sea, especially in Scotland and Norway.

A 150‐g portion is an exceptionally rich source of vitamin B₁₂, a rich source of protein, niacin, vitamin B₆, copper, and selenium; a good source of vitamin B₁; a source of vitamin B₂ and folate; contains 160 mg of sodium and 20 g of fat, of which 20% is saturated and 50% is mono‐unsaturated; supplies 300 kcal (1260 kJ). Pacific salmon may be a source of vitamin A and a rich source of vitamin D; canned salmon, in which the softened bones are edible, is also a source of calcium.

Salmon river, c.425 mi (680 km) long, rising in many branches in the Sawtooth and the Salmon River mts., central Idaho. It flows northeast and is joined, at Salmon, by the Lemhi River, after which it flows west and is joined by the Middle Fork and the South Fork, then goes north to join the Snake River. The river's canyon, c.1 mi (1.6 km) deep and 10 mi (16.1 km) wide in some places, threads through a wilderness preserve. In 1935 a party sponsored by the National Geographic Society explored the canyon. Though the swift waters and rapids are navigable downstream, it is impossible to return by the water route, thus giving the Salmon the name River of No Return. Salmon travel up the river to spawn.

salm·on / ˈsamən/ • n. (pl. same or (esp. of types) salmons) 1. a large edible game fish, much prized for its pink flesh. Salmon mature in the sea but migrate to freshwater streams to spawn. The Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) may return to spawn two or three times, but the five species of Pacific salmon (genus Oncorhynchus) always die after spawning. The salmon family (Salmonidae) also includes trout, char, whitefish, and their relatives. ∎  the flesh of this fish as food. 2. any of a number of fishes that resemble the true salmons. 3. a pale pinkish orange color. DERIVATIVES: salm·on·y adj.

salmon Marine and freshwater fish of the Northern Hemisphere. Most species are silvery and spotted until the spawning season when they turn dark or red. The Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus) hatches, spawns, and dies in freshwater, but spends its adult life in the ocean. The Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is a marine trout that spawns in rivers on each side of the Atlantic Ocean and then returns to the sea. Weight: to 36kg (80lb). Family Salmonidae.

salmon large fish of the genus Salmo. XIII (sa(l)moun). — AN. sa(u)moun, (O)F. saumon :- L. salmō, salmōn-, rel. to salar trout or young salmon.

Salmon , in the Bible. 1 Father of Boaz. An alternate form is Salma. 2 Place, probably the same as Zalmon .

salmon , member of the Salmonidae, a family of marine fish that spawn in freshwater, including the salmons, the trouts, and the chars. Many authorities place the whitefish and the grayling among the Salmonidae, so similar are they in structure and habits. The Salmonidae are the most highly developed of the herringlike fishes, characterized by soft, rayless adipose fins, and are denizens of cold, oxygen-rich waters. In general they are silvery in the sea and more brightly hued in brooks and lakes.

The Salmon Family

There are three genera of Salmonidae: Salmo, Oncorhynchus, and Salvelinus. Unfortunately, the common names of the species do not correspond to the natural divisions. The "true," or black-spotted, trout is actually a Salmo, and the speckled, or brook, trout of the E United States is a Salvelinus and should more properly be called a char, as similar fishes in Europe are.

The American species of Salmo were originally split by the Mississippi basin, and were represented in the east by the Atlantic salmon and in the west by the rainbow and cutthroat trouts. The Atlantic salmon was a plentiful source of food for the Native Americans and the colonists, but its populations have declined. This salmon is a large fish (15 lb/6.8 kg average) found along the Atlantic coast of NE America, in Greenland, and in Europe. When in the sea it feeds on crustaceans, but as it approaches the the large rivers to spawn, it changes its diet to small fish. A landlocked species, the Sebago salmon, is found in Maine. Of the many races of cutthroat trout, some are now extinct; the greenback trout of the Colorado Rockies was recently rediscovered. The steelhead trout is believed to be the silvery saltwater phase of the colorful rainbow trout. Rainbows and cutthroats are known to hybridize, and a new species, the Gila trout, combining characteristics of both, has been discovered in New Mexico. The brown trout, introduced from Europe in 1883, requires warmer waters than the native species and is important in fish-management programs.

The genus Oncorhynchus is comprised of the five species of Pacific salmon, found from S California to Alaska. These fish are the most important commercial species. Canning centers are located on the Columbia River and on Puget Sound and in British Columbia, Siberia, and N Japan. The largest and commercially most important of the Pacific salmon is the chinook (or quinnat or king) salmon, which averages 20 lb (9 kg) and may reach 100 lb (45 kg). It is found from the Bering Sea to Japan and S California and is marketed fresh, smoked, and canned. The white-fleshed fish of this normally red-fleshed species have become highly prized in the restaurant trade. The blueback salmon (called sockeye in Oregon and redfish in Alaska) has firm reddish flesh and forms the bulk of the canned salmon. Also of economic importance are the humpback, or pink, salmon, the smallest of the group; and the silver, or coho, salmon, important in the fall catch because of its late spawning season. The meat of the dog salmon is palatable when fresh or smoked.

The genus Salvelinus includes the various European chars; the common brook, or speckled, trout, a popular game fish of E North America, introduced in the West; and the Dolly Varden, or bull, trout, a similar western form. A fourth genus, Cristivomer, contains one species, the common lake trout, and one subspecies, the siscowet, or fat trout. These are deepwater fishes of North American lakes, more sluggish, less migratory, and bulkier than the other Salmonidae; individuals have been recorded at 100 lb (45 kg). A fish called the splake has been produced by crossing the speckled trout and the lake trout.

Life Cycle

The basic life pattern of the Salmonidae begins when, within the first year or two of life, the fish travels downstream to the sea, where it grows to its full size. After reaching maturity (one to nine years) it returns to its hatching site to spawn. The Pacific salmon are famed for their grueling journeys of hundreds of miles to their headwater breeding grounds. When they begin this trip they are in prime condition, but they cease eating when they leave the sea and arrive months later, exhausted and battered by their fight upstream against swift currents and over falls. Those that survive the trip and escape fishermen and predatory animals spawn with their last strength and then die. These salmon are taken at the mouths of large rivers, as they begin their upstream migration. The Atlantic salmon and the trouts spawn more than once. Most trouts migrate to the sea if there is a cold-water connection, but also will sometimes live and reproduce if landlocked.

Conservation

Because of such human activities as overfishing, development, dam building, logging, and farm irrigation, Pacific salmon populations have greatly declined, and many species are now listed as rare and endangered. The United States and Canada negotiated a conservation agreement in 1999 that includes setting catch limits based upon ongoing scientific assessments of salmon population levels. In addition, multiple-approach conservation efforts are under way in Washington and Oregon states to restore the salmon runs. For reasons less well understood, and despite international conservation measures, Atlantic salmon populations have also sharply declined. The desirability of salmon as food fish has led to their being raised in aquaculture.

Classification

Salmon are classified in the phylum Chordata , subphylum Vertebrata, class Osteichthyes, order Clupeiformes, family Salmonidae.

Bibliography

See A. Netboy, The Salmon: Their Fight for Survival (1973).

salmon a salmon with a ring is the emblem of St Kentigern.

salmon See SALMONIDAE.

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