The point at which salmon aim to ar-
rive is the place they were born. But
make no mistake: it’s not just a short
distance. The distance that the fish needs to
cover to get to its destination may be up to 1,500
km (930 miles), which means a demanding journey of several months.
There are many obstacles that the fish has to overcome during this
journey.
The first, and maybe the most important problem that needs to be
solved is to find where the river down which the fish swam during its
first journey empties into the sea. Based on this, the fish will determine
the return route to follow. Amazingly, none of the salmon makes a
mistake and they all find the river’s opening to the sea right first time.
Entering the stream, the salmon starts to steadfastly swim against the
current. This time its task is harder because, whereas it could easily
pass down waterfalls with the assistance of the current the first time,
it has to climb up over them this time. What the salmon in the pictures
in this chapter intends by leaping upriver is to reach the place where
it was spawned. During this journey the salmon may need to swim
through shallow waters that leave its upper fin above water. These
shallow waters are full of birds, bears and many other wild predators.
The difficulties that the salmon has to overcome are not limited to
these. Recall that it hatched from the egg in a branch of a river, in an
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