Salmon — big beautiful fish up to 1.5 m long and up to 40 kg. It treats to family of salmon. Other names of a salmon — an Atlantic salmon, a noble salmon, the Baltic salmon. In Western Europe the Atlantic salmon is often called "king fish".
King fish
The king fish of an Atlantic salmon call for several reasons at once. First, for ability to make long migrations. The salmon travels during all the life. In youth floats from the freshwater rivers in a northern part of the Atlantic Ocean to acquire weight, and then comes back to throw caviar.
Secondly, a salmon - one of the most beautiful and graceful fishes. Her trunk of a streamline shape with bright silvery scales. Besides, an Atlantic salmon - strong and powerful fish. It is considered one of the best fighters in the fish world.
The young salmon spends the first several years of life in small streams and the rivers, eating water insects and drifting downstream. During this period the young growth is called a pestryanka. On achievement of certain sizes the pestryanka turns into an adult individual — smolt. Silvery coloring develops, there are internal changes allowing to survive in salty water. In the spring smolt salmons goes to the ocean. The salmon quickly grows in the ocean on rich nutritious resources. Here its menu consists of squids, shrimps and small fish, mainly, of a herring and a cod. The main places of a nagul of fish are located near Greenland and Iceland. Having spent one or two years in sea open spaces, the Atlantic salmon begins the way back. It is considered to be that the salmon uses a magnetic or solar compass to find the road to the native river. However it is not known for certain. The salmon can come back to fresh waters in the spring, in the summer or in the fall. Spawning happens always in the fall. Population of a salmon steadily decreases in the last two centuries. The situation began to worsen sharply in the seventies the twentieth century when catches dropped by 80%. Pollution of the rivers, increase in number of artificial obstacles: dams, dams, spillways, make migration impossible.
Family salmon
The salmon treats family salmon. Commercially important types of salmon come from two childbirth. The sort Salmo includes, just, an Atlantic salmon and several types united under the general name a trout. The sort Oncorhynchus is the Pacific salmons: Siberian salmon, humpback salmon, chinook, silver salmon, and others. Our word a salmon comes from Indo-European "lak" that means "to spray, splash, stain". Literally the name can be interpreted as "motley fish". The Latin name of a salmon - Salmo, "jumper" literally means. Most likely, it is connected with behavior salmon during spawning. All salmon spawn in the fresh rivers and streams. There is no wonder. Originally all salmons were freshwater, and only separate types in the course of evolution turned into fishes through passage. That is the most part of life carrying out on the sea open spaces, and on spawning returning to those rivers where were born. The majority of salmons through passage after spawning perish. It is characteristic, first of all, of the Pacific salmons. The exception makes the Atlantic look at which not all individuals perish. Some salmons spawn up to 4 times.