Chinook Salmon Fall Migration HD 1080p

Thanks to Covid and more recently make-up travel it has been a few years since I've been down to photograph the salmon run in Toronto. This time I was equipped with new cameras capable of filming in slow motion and maintaining focus while doing it. Gotta love Canon.

These are Chinook Salmon and they are an introduced species to the Great Lakes. They are here to stay. The annual migration of adult salmon up our rivers is both magnificent and tragic. The thrill of watching them leap up waterfalls and dams draws oohs and cheers from watching people (especially kids). But this joy should also be tempered with the reality that each of these salmon have but a few more weeks to live. Migrate, breed and die.

There are very few large animals that die after mating. Octopus do, so do many species of insects but few fish, amphibians, birds or mammals face such an ending to the act of creating life. (Something I am thankful for as are you I imagine.)

One wonders why the Pacific salmon pay this price. How did it evolve? Was there ever a time in their evolution when the Sockeye, Coho, Chinook (King), Pink and Chum salmon didn't die after laying eggs? And why don't don't Atlantic salmon follow the same path.

As a side note see if you can identify the sex of the salmon as they leap. Males have a more hooked "beak".