Salmon family: appearance, habitat and spawning. Salmon fish names, species features What applies to salmon fish

Salmon fish occupies a special place in the human diet. Its main distinguishing feature is dietary and at the same time very tasty meat, which can be consumed by everyone without exception. It has a relatively low calorie content, however, fatty and tender. The meat has a pleasant pink-red color. Fish contains a lot of useful micro-, macroelements and vitamins. In addition, red caviar of the salmon family is considered a delicacy, the price of which is several times less than black caviar. This article will talk about the representatives of the salmon family, about the environment in which they live, what characteristic features they have.

Habitat for salmon fish

The habitat of these fish is quite wide. Representatives of the salmon family can be found in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in fresh water bodies of the Northern Hemisphere. The largest natural spawning grounds for these fish species are located in Kamchatka, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.

For the most part, this is a commercial and valuable fish of the salmon family, its production, as mentioned above, is carried out not only for tasty meat, but also for red caviar.

Feature

Fish of the salmon family has one distinctive feature. It lies in the fact that any representative of this species, even the fish of the northern seas of the salmon family, comes to spawn in freshwater rivers. For example, Pacific specimens mainly spawn in the rivers of the Kamchatka Territory. During this period, the appearance of the fish changes beyond recognition, it becomes different both in color and shape. And the quality of meat at this time is greatly reduced. Therefore, catching fish when it goes to spawn is prohibited.

Almost all salmon have a body that is flattened laterally. In addition, the salmon family is distinguished from other fish species by the presence of a lateral line.

Species of fish belonging to the salmon family

Among the fish of this species there are both freshwater and anadromous. In accordance with this classification, the division of subspecies occurs. What fish of the salmon family exist?

1. Northern salmon or salmon.
2. White salmon.
3. Nelma.
4. Pink salmon.
5. Kizhuch.
6. Keta.
7. Chinook.
8. Red salmon.
9. Trout.

Brief description of salmon fish. Salmon

Let us consider in more detail what some salmon family fish are. The list opens with northern salmon (noble) or salmon. This large and beautiful species of fish lives in the White Sea basin. The meat of this representative of salmon is very tasty and tender, reddish in color. It is rich in various nutrients and vitamins. Salmon is distinguished by its large size, it has a length of up to 1.5 meters and a weight of 40 kg. In terms of cost, salmon meat is more expensive than all other representatives of the salmon family.

The body of the salmon is covered with small silvery scales, the spots on the lower lateral line are completely absent. This fish of the salmon family feeds on crustaceans and small fish in the sea. When she goes to spawn, she stops eating and therefore loses a lot of weight. By the mating season, the appearance of salmon changes greatly: the body of the fish darkens, orange-red spots appear on the sides and head. In males, the jaws also change, in their upper part a hook-shaped protrusion is formed, which is included in the notch of the lower jaw.

Salmon spawns in autumn, in some areas even in winter. The water temperature in the spawning grounds does not exceed 6 degrees Celsius, so the development of eggs is very slow. Only in May, the juveniles begin to hatch from the eggs and then live in fresh water for a long time. Young people do not look like their adult relatives at all - they are mobile and motley-colored fish. After 5 years, they approach the mouths of the rivers and, having reached a size of 9-18 cm, go out to sea. At this time, their body is covered with silvery scales.

white salmon

The whitefish lives in the Caspian Sea. Like many representatives of the salmon species, the whitefish has winter and spring forms. This northern fish of the salmon family, like almost all salmon, is a predator. In the sea it feeds on small brethren: herring, gobies, as well as crustaceans and insects. During the spawning period, they eat practically nothing in the rivers and therefore lose a lot of weight, the fat content in meat during this period does not exceed 2%.

It is one of the most valuable fish species. Its meat has a very low calorie content. The whitefish chooses the Volga River and its tributaries as a spawning ground. It reaches a length of more than a meter, weighs from 3 to 14 kg, and the average weight of females is 8.6 kg, males - 6 kg. The white salmon becomes a sexually mature individual at 6-7 years of age.

Nelma

Nelma is a close relative of the previous species. Habitat - basins of the Ob and Irtysh rivers. It has a weight of 3 to 12 kg (there are also larger individuals weighing up to 30 kg) and a length of up to 130 cm. Nelma represents a family of salmon fish, the photo in the article shows how it looks. She has large silvery scales, small caviar. It is a relatively slow growing fish. It reaches sexual maturity at the age of 8 to 18 years, depending on the habitat. The marriage attire during the spawning period does not differ much from the usual one. The mouth of this representative of the fish is quite large, like that of a salmon. And they distinguish nelma from both salmon and whitefish. In terms of taste, nelma meat is slightly inferior to white salmon meat.

Whitefish

A fairly large subgroup is whitefish of the salmon family, the list of these species is as follows:

1. Omul.
2. Tugun.
3. Siberian vendace (Ob herring).

The body of whitefish is laterally compressed, and the shape of the jaws depends on the food. In nature, there are both small representatives of this species (vendace weighs about 400 g) and large individuals (for example, omul weighing more than 3 kg). An interesting fact: after spawning, the omul returns to its usual habitat - to the lower reaches of the rivers. The meat of whitefish representatives of fish is white and tender. Its taste largely depends on the place of catch. The harsher the environment, the tastier the meat.

Far Eastern and Pacific salmon

If we consider the Far Eastern and Pacific representatives of the fish fauna, we can say that the salmon family includes: pink salmon, chum salmon, sockeye salmon, chinook salmon, coho salmon. The latter is the most low-fat fish - 6%. Because of their appearance, coho salmon is often called silver salmon (in the old days - white fish). It can reach 14 kg in weight, its length is more than 80 cm. But mostly individuals of medium size, weighing 7-8 kg, go on sale. Coho salmon spawn later than all salmon - from September to March, sometimes under ice. During spawning, females and males of coho salmon become dark crimson in color. In the sea, he lives relatively little and already at 2-3 years old becomes sexually mature. This is the most heat-loving representative of the Pacific salmon. Recently, the number of coho salmon has declined sharply.

Pink salmon is a fish that ranks first in terms of catch for commercial purposes in the Far East. Its meat has a fat content of about 7.5%. But pink salmon is also the smallest fish of this family, its weight rarely exceeds 2 kg. The length of an individual is about 70 cm. Its body is covered with small scales. In the sea, it is painted silver, the tail is covered with small dark spots. In the rivers, the color of pink salmon changes: dark spots cover the head and sides. During the spawning period, the hump grows in males, the jaws lengthen and curve. Beautiful fish in this period becomes simply ugly.

Chinook in appearance resembles a large salmon. It is the most valuable and largest fish of the Far Eastern salmon species. The average size of Chinook Salmon reaches 90 cm. The back, tail and dorsal fin are covered with small black spots. In the seas, this type of fish can live from 4 to 7 years. This is a cold-loving representative of the salmon family. All Pacific salmon spawn once in their life and after that they soon die.

Keta

Keta is also a lean fish. Despite this, the fat content in meat is higher than that of pink salmon. This is a larger, widespread and mass species of the family of Far Eastern salmon fish. It can reach a length of more than 1 meter. Keta is well known for its large bright orange caviar.

The marine outfit, in which the fish of the salmon family is dressed, is painted in silver color, has no stripes and spots. In the rivers, the fish changes its color to brownish-yellow with dark crimson stripes. During spawning, the body of the chum salmon becomes completely black. The size of the teeth, especially in males, increases. And the meat becomes completely lean, whitish and flabby. The fish matures for spawning at 3-5 years of age. It enters the rivers of Siberia for spawning:

1. Kolyma.
2. Lena.
3. Yanu and others.

Red salmon

Consider another genus of Far Eastern representatives, this is a fish of the salmon family - sockeye salmon. It is interesting in that the individual caught in the sea has a red color. Sometimes it is called so - red fish. Her meat tastes great. And during spawning it becomes white. The size of this representative of the salmon family does not exceed 80 cm, the average weight is from 2 to 4 kg. Sockeye salmon is not as common in our country as pink salmon and chum salmon. It enters only the rivers of Kamchatka, the Anadyr, and the rivers of the Kuril Islands.

Red fish is a cold-loving species of salmon. You will not meet her in the sea, where the temperature exceeds 2 degrees Celsius. Sockeye caviar is quite small - 4.7 mm, intensely red. The mating costume of the sockeye salmon is very spectacular: the back and sides are bright red, the head is green, and the fins are blood-red. Spawns in lakes and groundwater outlets. Sexually mature red fish becomes most often at 5-6 years of age. In the sea, it feeds mainly on crustaceans.

Trout

This fish of the salmon family is found in Onega, Ladoga lakes and other water bodies of Karelia and the Kola Peninsula, it can also be seen in the basins of the Baltic and White Seas. Trout comes in several varieties:

1. Scottish.
2. Alpine.
3. European.
4. American.
5. River.
6. Ozernaya.
7. Rainbow.

Freshwater fish of the salmon family prefers cold water bodies with clean and clear water. Lake trout are diverse in color and lifestyle. Representatives of this species of salmon have long been objects of artificial breeding both for hunting and for food. Brook trout is often called pied because of its bright color, lake trout has a second name - brown trout.

Piedling grows up to 25 cm in size and weighs up to 500 g. It prefers fast and cold rivers. Spawns in autumn or winter. Lake trout are golden in color with numerous black spots. This type of salmon is much larger than river trout. They reach a length of up to 50 cm and weigh up to 1.5 kg (although some individuals grow up to 8 kg in weight). Lake trout spawns from September to January, depending on the reservoir, either on rivers with a pebble bottom, or in lakes, in places where the springs beat. Trout food - small fish, insects and larvae, invertebrates. Trout meat is darker in appearance, but just as tasty and tender as other representatives of salmon, in addition, it is also healthy.

Valuable and tasty meat, red caviar made the salmon family popular commercial species. Illegal catching of this fish reaches a large scale. As a result, many species of salmon are listed in the Red Book and are under state protection.

Red fish, which is conventionally called "salmon", is considered a genuine delicacy that does not often appear on the tables of ordinary people. There are a huge number of representatives of the salmon family, many of them are distinguished by amazing taste and health properties. These fish include familiar salmon, trout, sockeye salmon, as well as many others, the appearance and features of which will be described in the article.

General description and features

According to science, salmon are representatives of the salmon-like order of the class of ray-finned fish.

This family can be divided into three subfamilies:

• salmon proper (7 species);
• whitefish (3 species);
• grayling (1 species).

The first subfamily is, for the most part, predators (some representatives have a mixed diet), are distinguished by large or medium sizes, small scales and high commercial value. These are trout, chum salmon, sockeye salmon, pink salmon, salmon.

Whitefish are smaller in size, covered with larger scales; these include whitefish, omul, valamka, peled, whitefish and some others. Finally, graylings are inhabitants of fresh water bodies, their distinctive feature is powerful dorsal fins.

Names and short description

Let us consider in more detail the list of fish of the salmon family. Let's make a reservation that "salmon" fish does not exist, this word hides the collective name of several species, therefore salmon or coho salmon are salmon.

In addition, they include two types of valuable fish:

• Pacific (these are coho salmon, chum salmon, sockeye salmon, chinook salmon, they spawn once in a lifetime, after which the fish dies);
• noble or real (these are salmon and various types of trout).

The structure of the body of salmon resembles herring, which is why for a long time they were considered relatives, but as a result of a detailed study, they were separated into an independent family.

The distinguishing features are:

1. The body is elongated, compressed laterally.
2. A horizontal line runs along the body of most species. There are also spots called blotches.
3. On the back there are two fins: one with a large number of rays, the other - fatty (non-radiated).
4. Transparent eyelids help protect the eyes.
5. Powerful jaw with many teeth.

Each type of salmon also has its own characteristics.

Habitat

Representatives of the salmon family are found in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the northern seas. So, a rich spawning ground was found in Kamchatka. Most of the species (with the exception of grayling) live in the seas, but go to freshwater rivers for spawning, and therefore are called freshwater (anadromous).

A large number is found in the rivers and lakes of Siberia and the Far East and other northern latitudes:

• taimen (Baikal, Yenisei, Amur, Lena, also found in Yakutia);
• grayling (Lake Baikal, Lena, Ob, Yenisei, Amur).

Certain types of salmon (salmon, trout) are bred on special fish farms, especially in Norway.

Peculiarities

The diet of salmon fish species is diverse. Most often, adults feed on small fish, crustaceans, worms, mollusks, squid, and sometimes jellyfish. Juveniles eat larvae of aquatic insects, as well as fry.

The natural enemies of young salmon are numerous:

• Pike;
• burbot;
• grayling;
• brown trout;
• fish-eating birds (gulls).

Adults can also become prey to predators, such as bearded seals.

The way of life is migratory: most of the species live in the seas, and go to fresh water for spawning, most often this happens when they reach the age of 5 years. The life span of most members of the family is about 10 years.

Spawning

For inhabitants of the northern latitudes, the breeding time comes in mid-September or October, when the water temperature is 0-8°C. And salmon of southern waters start spawning from October to January, at a temperature of 3-10°C. Females lay their eggs in pre-prepared recesses in the ground, the masonry is sprinkled with a mixture of sand and pebbles.

After breeding, fish quickly lose weight, and a very large number of them die. Survivors return to the seas, but sometimes they can remain in fresh water until warmer weather. In the spring, young individuals appear from the eggs, which will spend 1-5 years in the river, after which they will move to rivers or lakes, where they will actively feed and gain weight.

Economic importance

Such species as Far Eastern salmon, char, pink salmon, chum salmon, salmon have commercial value - their meat is tasty, nutritious and very healthy. In addition, salmon caviar is highly valued, considered a true delicacy. Fishing plays an important role in the economy of coastal regions.

Due to reckless fishing, the salmon population declined sharply in the middle of the last century. Therefore, now the issue is strictly regulated: restrictions on the catch of marine representatives have been established.

Freshwater salmon, which are objects of amateur and sport hunting, can be caught. In relation to them, the restrictions are more lenient, therefore, various graylings and whitefish are a welcome prey in the rivers of Siberia.

List of fish and description

There are a huge number of salmon fish, they inhabit both salt and fresh water bodies. Get to know the most interesting views.

Salmon

This is a valuable fish found in the northern seas; anglers often refer to it as "noble salmon". Body length can reach 1.5 meters, weight - up to 45 kg. The body is compressed, covered with small silvery scales, which are very easy to clean off during the cooking process.

It is born in fresh water. Then it moves to salt water bodies. In the Russian Federation, it is found in rivers and lakes of the Kola Peninsula, the White and Baltic Seas, Ladoga, Onega Lakes.

For food, salmon uses small fish, crustaceans, and larvae. During the spawning period, it eats practically nothing, and characteristic bright orange or red spots appear on the body. Life expectancy is 13-15 years.

coho salmon

This is a rather large representative of the salmon family, reaching up to a meter in length and up to 15 kg in weight.

Distinctive features of the fish:

• big head;
• broad forehead;
• silvery scales, because of which coho coho was nicknamed "silver salmon".

It lives in the Pacific Ocean, it is also found off the coast of Kamchatka, in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, off the coast of Sakhalin and in the waters of the United States (states from Alaska to California).

Spawning begins at the age of 3-4 years, for this it leaves lakes and seas, goes to rivers. Like other salmonids, coho coho acquires a bright red color during the breeding season, and dies after spawning.

Chinook salmon

Another representative is Chinook salmon, which lives in the basins of the Amur and Anadyr rivers, as well as in the Pacific Ocean, on the coasts of the Kuriles, Kamchatka, and the Japanese Islands. The weight of the fish is from 15 kg, but sometimes it was possible to catch real giants - up to 30 kg, body length - about a meter, although indicators were recorded and slightly more than 2 meters.

It is born in a fresh water reservoir, where it lives until it reaches 2 years of age, after which it goes to the sea, where it actively feeds for 5 years. Then it returns to fresh waters, most often - small rivers - for reproduction. It feeds on larvae, insects, small fish and crustaceans, and in the seas it often eats plankton, krill and cephalopods. It has valuable meat, rich in selenium, fluorine, calcium, phosphorus, iron, and fatty acids.

Red salmon

This representative of the Pacific salmon can be up to 80 cm long and weigh up to 4 kg. It occurs off the coast of Sakhalin, Kamchatka, Alaska, and also in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Sockeye salmon feeds on kalyanid crustaceans, due to the pigment contained in them, the fish meat is painted in a rich red hue. It begins to breed in those places where the fish itself was born. It dies after spawning.

Sockeye salmon meat is considered a dietary product, it can be salted, smoked, baked. Balyk enjoys special love among gourmets.

Trout

It has rich red meat, valued for its low calorie content. It can live in both fresh and salt water, depending on the species.

The color of a trout directly depends on the environmental conditions in which it is located:

• if the reservoir is calcareous, then the fish is light, almost white, with a copper sheen;
• in peat lakes the color is darker.

A trout that feeds well is almost uniform in color, but if the diet is poor, then its body is covered with specks.

It is customary to distinguish three types of trout:

• iridescent;
• lacustrine;
• stream.

It uses plankton, insects and their larvae, small fish as food. Lives in small flocks, known for its caution.

Pink salmon

It does not differ in impressive dimensions, the maximum can be 70 cm, the average weight is about 2 kg. Most often, pink salmon is found in the waters of the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic, but for breeding it enters the Siberian rivers. Another name for fish is pink salmon, it has taken root because of the specific color of tender and tasty meat.

Pink salmon looks very beautiful:

• blue-green or bluish back;
• silver sides;
• white belly.

During the spawning period, the color of pink salmon scales changes to pale gray. Life expectancy - up to 3 years, after reproduction dies.

Keta

This is an anadromous fish caught on an industrial scale in the Far East. It is distinguished by a conical head with small eyes and a compressed, elongated body. It is very similar to pink salmon, but has larger scales. Approaching spawning, the chum salmon acquires a black color. In this form, it is called catfish, it is not suitable for human food, but can be used to feed dogs.

It is customary to distinguish two types of chum salmon:

• summer, the average length of which is not more than 80 cm;
• autumn, in length it can be up to a meter.

It gains weight in the seas up to 2-3 years, after which it gathers in large flocks and moves to rivers for spawning.

Whitefish

It is found in clean waters saturated with oxygen, rarely sinks to the bottom or rises to the surface, preferring to stay in the water column. Weight up to 6 kg, average body length - 60-80 cm.

The color of the whitefish is silver, the fins are dark. Belongs to schooling fish, spawning begins in November, for this it moves to the shallows, overgrown with coastal plants. A distinctive feature of whitefish is white meat.

Other types

There are a lot of salmon fish. Among them are the following:

1. Trout. This is an anadromous fish that is found in the Baltic, Black, White Seas. Body length - up to 45 cm, weight - about 3.5 kg, but there are also more impressive individuals - 6-7 kg.
2. Neyma. Representative of the whitefish subfamily, preferring cold fresh waters. Length about 1.2 meters, weight - 30 kg. Valued for tasty dietary meat.
3. Lenok. In appearance it is similar to whitefish, but has a darker color. It is mined on an industrial scale in the Far East.
4. Grayling. By its appearance, this inhabitant of the seas is not at all like other salmonids, it has a large dorsal fin decorated with spots, large scales, and thanks to various shades it looks very beautiful and elegant. The pectoral and ventral fins of grayling are yellow, the tail is crimson.

These are the main representatives of the salmon family.

Beneficial features

The commercial value of salmon is primarily due to the high nutritional value of these fish, whose meat is rich in vitamins and macro- and microelements (phosphorus, potassium, calcium, iron), as well as fatty acids necessary for humans. At the same time, it is non-caloric, therefore it can be included in the dietary nutrition system, it helps to strengthen the immune system, increases the efficiency of the brain, and is a powerful prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

Salmon

This fish should be included in the diet of everyone who cares about their health.

It is very helpful:

1. Due to the melatonin included in the composition, it helps to naturally rejuvenate the body.
2. Stimulates the work of the central nervous system.
3. Reduces bad cholesterol.
4. Favorably affects the productivity of the brain.

It is important to remember that the most valuable is the fish that is caught in natural conditions, and not grown artificially.

Pink salmon

In addition to the above beneficial properties inherent in salmon in general, pink salmon helps to cleanse the body of toxins and toxins, fights bone diseases and is considered a means of preventing osteoporosis. It is rich in amino acids, so after a meal you can forget about the feeling of hunger for a long time.

Contraindications

Despite the usefulness of salmon, there are certain categories of people for whom eating fish is contraindicated:

• suffering from an allergic reaction to fish products;
• with problems of the gastrointestinal tract (especially stomach ulcers, pancreatitis);
• with pathologies of the kidneys and liver, urinary system;
• with individual intolerance to phosphorus and iodine.

We also note that fish should not be abused, it will bring benefits to the body only in case of moderation.

Nursing mothers are advised to give up red fish until the baby is six months old, since the product can cause a severe allergic reaction in him. Before introducing salmon into complementary foods, you need to get the approval of a medical specialist.

Use in cooking

Salmon meat is considered a valuable and tasty product, most often eaten after heat treatment, however, some fish species also allow salting and drying. The meat has a beautiful red-pink hue, and the presence of beneficial fatty acids is greater in those species that lived in cold waters.

The best side dishes are potatoes, boiled rice, vegetables. Sweet and sour sauces perfectly emphasize the taste.

Fresh fish should be cleaned of scales, gutted, washed, and then dried with a towel. Frozen product should be left in cold salted water to thaw.

Suitable seasonings for salmon are as follows:

• dill (fresh, frozen);
• thyme;
• basil;
• pink pepper.

frying

A simple but very tasty recipe for cooking red fish in a pan.

Procedure:

1. Cut the carcass into pieces, salt, season. Can be rolled in flour.
2. Fry in a preheated pan for 5 minutes on each side.

Serve with potatoes and vegetables.

foil baking

Procedure:

1. Prepare the carcass (clean, rinse, salt, season).
2. Lay foil on a baking sheet.
3. Add a layer of chopped onion.
4. Place fish.
5. Cover with foil.
6. Place in oven. Temperature 210°, cooking time 20 minutes.
7. Open the foil, this will help to get a crispy crust, then bake for another 5 minutes.

A delicious and healthy dish is ready.

salting

For this option, both fresh and frozen fish are suitable.

Procedure:

1. Prepare the carcass, cut it into pieces of the required size.
2. Rub the fish with a mixture of salt and sugar.
3. Place the fillet in a glass container under oppression.
4. Place in the refrigerator, in the freshness zone, for a day. After that, the product is ready for use.

For 1 kg of fish, 3 tablespoons are required. salt and 2 tbsp. Sahara.

Video

The following video shows a simple recipe for making red fish soup:

You will find an original and delicious recipe for a spicy breakfast with red fish in this video.

This video will help you properly clean any salmon and prepare it for further processing.

Who doesn't love red fish? One caviar is worth something! But, unfortunately, most people know little about the salmon themselves, their lifestyle and what species, in fact, are salmon. As an ichthyologist, I have come across a lot of various representatives of the salmon family, both theoretically and “live”, and therefore I consider it my duty to clarify this issue. From this note you will learn what kind of salmon fish is, what types of salmon are and how they differ.

Is there salmon fish?

Quite often, people are interested in what kind of fish it is - salmon. Let's immediately decide that any fish from two genera of the salmon family is called salmon ( Salmonidae) is a genus of Pacific salmon ( Oncorhynchus) and noble salmon genus ( Salmo). Sometimes the word "salmon" is directly included in the trivial names of some of these fish species, for example, steelhead salmon - mykizha ( Oncorhynchus mykiss) or Atlantic salmon (aka noble salmon) - better known as salmon ( Salmosalar). Perhaps it is salmon that is most often called simply salmon, meaning a specific species.

Salmon is different

The word "salmon" itself comes from the Indo-European word lax and means "spotted", "speckled". In Russian, the word "salmon" was feminine until the 16th century, now it is masculine. Salmon family name Salmonidae- comes from the Latin root salio - to jump and is associated with spawning behavior (details below in the section Reproduction and migration of salmon).

salmon species

Wow, how many kinds! And that's not all.

The salmon family, in addition to the two genera of salmon, also includes taimen, lenok, grayling, char, whitefish and palia. But, I repeat, here we are talking only about salmon - Pacific ( Oncorhynchus) and noble ( Salmo). Below is a brief description and the main differences between these genera.

Pacific salmon ( Oncorhynchus). This group includes pink salmon, chum salmon, coho salmon, sim, sockeye salmon, chinook salmon and several American salmon living in our waters. Representatives of this genus spawn once in a lifetime and die immediately after spawning.

Sockeye salmon is the brightest representative of the Far Eastern salmon

Noble, or real salmon ( Salmo), unlike their Pacific counterparts, after spawning, as a rule, they do not die and can breed several times during their life. This group of salmon includes the well-known salmon and many types of trout.

Salmon - large noble salmon

Reproduction and migration of salmon

All salmon spawn in fresh water. After hatching, the fry grow up and either remain in the same reservoir where they were born (in residential forms of salmon), or slide into the sea (anadromous forms), where, fattening, they become adult fish. Having reached puberty, such salmon return to the river, where they spawn. Most salmon try to return to the same river where they were born, and some (for example, sockeye salmon) even to the same spawning ground. This behavior is called "homing" ("homing", from home - home).

Salmon spawning is a mass phenomenon, but short-term

Salmon nutrition

Juveniles and residential (freshwater) forms feed on insects, caviar and fish fry. During the feeding period in the sea, adult salmon feed on schooling species of smaller fish and invertebrates.

Salmon fishing and breeding

All salmon are valuable commercial fish. Anadromous salmon are caught in the sea, as when moving from salty sea water to fresh water, their meat loses some of its taste. As an object of amateur salmon, in my opinion, the most interesting fish.

Thanks to the tradition of salmon returning to spawn in their native river (hominga), salmon are bred in fish factories. A fish factory is usually built on a river. Fish going to spawn are caught, eggs are taken and fertilized. The fry obtained after incubation are reared and released back into the river. The fry roll into the sea, fatten up and after a year or several years they return to their native river. Thanks to this approach, the survival rate of salmon fry increases significantly.

salmon larvae

Residential (freshwater) forms of salmon, such as trout, are farmed from the moment the eggs are fertilized until the adult fish are ready for sale.

Actually, everything. Now you know who salmon are and what they are. In conclusion, I bring to your attention a short educational video about the life of salmon.

The salmon family includes fish that have one true dorsal fin and one adipose fin. The dorsal fin has 10 to 16 rays. The second, adipose fin has no rays. In females, the oviducts are rudimentary or absent, so that the maturing eggs fall out of the ovary into the body cavity. The intestine has numerous pyloric appendages. Most of the eyes are equipped with transparent eyelids. Salmon - migratory and freshwater fish of the northern hemisphere; they live in Europe, northern Asia (south to the upper reaches of the Yangtze), in the mountain streams of North Africa and North America. There are no salmonids in the southern hemisphere, except for those acclimatized by humans.

Salmon - fish that easily change their lifestyle, appearance, color, depending on external conditions. The meat of all salmon is excellent in taste, and most of them have become objects of fishing and fish farming. Salmonids are one of the most important commercial fish in the world, yielding catches of 500-575 thousand tons per year (1965-1967).

There are two subfamilies - actually salmon(Salmoninae) and whitefish(Coregoninae). Whitefish differ from salmon proper in details of the structure of the skull, most of them have a relatively small mouth and larger scales than salmon.

Pacific salmon(Oncorhynchus), as the name indicates, live in the Pacific Ocean. Representatives of this genus have from 10 to 16 branched rays in the anal fin, the scales are medium in size or small, the eggs are large and painted in red-orange color. These are migratory fish spawning in the fresh waters of Asia and North America and fattening in the sea. There are 6 well-distinguished species (chum salmon, pink salmon, chinook salmon, red salmon, coho salmon and sim). All Pacific salmon spawn only once in their lives, dying after the first spawning.

Even the discoverer of the Kamchatka Peninsula, Vladimir Atlasov, reported in his “tale”: “And the fish in those rivers in the Kamchatka land is marine, a special breed ... And that fish goes from the sea along those rivers much more and that fish does not return to the sea, but dies in those rivers and in the backwaters.

During the marine life period, Pacific salmon feed in the entire northern part of the Pacific Ocean up to the front of the warm Kuro-Sivo Current, including the Sea of ​​Japan, the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, and the Bering Sea. At this time, they do not form large clusters and stay in the upper layers (usually up to 10 m deep). Their food is varied; most often found in the stomachs are small pelagic fish and their juveniles, crustaceans, pelagic pteropods, squid juveniles, worms, less often jellyfish and small ctenophores. The body of salmon at this time is covered with silvery, easily falling scales, there are no teeth on the upper and lower jaws. They spend the winter in the south, in the Kuro-Sivo front zone. With the onset of spring, the ocean comes to life: as soon as the temperature of the upper layers rises, microscopic algae abundantly develop in them, various pelagic animals rise to the surface and begin to multiply and grow intensively. This zone of abundant life is moving from the Kuro-Shivo front to the north and northeast as the water warms. Following it, salmon move, all the time being in a strip rich in food resources. This explains their rapid growth in the sea. Moving for food, Pacific salmon reach the mouths of the rivers of the North Pacific coast of the USA, Canada, Alaska and the entire Far East coast of Asia to South Korea and Japan. Here their herds are divided. Those that do not go to spawn this year, after fattening with the onset of the autumn cooling of the water, begin the reverse migration to the south. Sexually mature begin spawning migration - a journey without return, rushing into the rivers where they were born and where they are destined to die, having laid their eggs. Not a single case of survival of spawning by Far Eastern salmon is known, and in this they differ from all other salmonids. Remarkably, salmon seem to find the river they were born in. The reasons for this are not fully understood. There are suggestions that in the open sea they are guided by the sun, the moon, possibly bright constellations, and off the coast they “recognize” the water of their “native” river, distinguishing the finest features of its chemical composition with the help of the organs of smell and taste. However, this mystery is still waiting to be solved. The appearance of salmon entering rivers changes. They have a “wedding outfit”: the body, which was rolled in the sea, flattens, strong hooked teeth appear on the jaws, vomer, palate and tongue. The jaws themselves, especially in males, are bent, a hump grows on the back, the skin becomes thick and rough, scales grow into it. The silvery coloration disappears, and a pigment appears in the skin, coloring it black, raspberry or lilac-red. In females, signs of nuptial attire are less pronounced than in males.

The reasons for the emergence of marriage attire have not been studied. Some researchers, according to Charles Darwin's theory of sexual selection, suggest that the attributes of marriage attire attract females who choose the "most beautiful" male, others see them as adaptations that are useful to fish in river conditions. There is an opinion that the breeding attire of salmon is an atavistic phenomenon, a return to the ancestral type; this opinion is based on a superficial similarity in body coloration and dentition of the jaws in mature fish and fry. Finally, the possibility is not ruled out that the wedding dress is due to the side effects of hormones, since during the intensive maturation of the gonads, the endocrine glands, especially the pituitary gland, are actively working. Which of the points of view is closer to the truth, the future will show.

During migration from river mouths to spawning grounds, salmon do not feed, existing solely on the reserves accumulated in the muscles. They are extremely depleted during the journey. Climbing 1200 km along the Amur, Ussuri and r. Hor, chum is losing more than 75% of the energy stored in the sea. The amount of fat in the muscles decreases from 10% to fractions of a percent, the amount of dry matter also decreases, the meat becomes watery and flabby. The stomach and intestines shrink, the liver stops producing bile, the enzymes that break down proteins are not secreted by the stomach. All this time, the fish do a great job, rising up the rivers, often stormy, replete with rifts, rapids and waterfalls. It has been established that waterfalls a meter high and even more are overcome by salmon relatively easily. The record holder in this respect is the chinook salmon rising along the river. Yukon to Lake Bennett and Caribou - Crossing (about 4000 km). Regarding chum salmon, there are calculations showing that the daily energy expenditure for males is 25,810 and for females 28,390 calories per kilogram of live weight.

The spawning migration of salmon with their large numbers leaves an indelible impression. Here is how the first scientist who explored Kamchatka, S. P. Krasheninnikov, described it: “All the fish in Kamchatka go from the sea to the rivers in the summer with such numerous runes that the rivers come from that and, having overflowed their banks, flow until the evening, until the fish stop enter their mouths." Krasheninnikov's description refers to 1737-1741, and until the beginning of our century it could not be considered exaggerated. At present, the number of Pacific salmon has greatly decreased and the spawning run is no longer such a grandiose spectacle.

All Pacific salmon bury fertilized eggs in the ground, so they spawn in places where the bottom is not silted, covered with pebbles or gravel, often where underwater springs beat. The female, accompanied by one or several males, keeps her head against the current and scatters the soil with vigorous movements of the caudal peduncle. Caviar is deposited in the formed hole, and the male waters it with milk. Between males during spawning there are continuous skirmishes. Some of the eggs remain unfertilized, many are carried away by the current and eaten by freshwater fish. Having spawned, the female fills the hole with pebbles. A hillock is formed, under which the eggs develop and the larvae that emerge from the eggs are until the yolk sac is resorbed.

After spawning, the mass death of producers begins. The most exhausted die already at the spawning ground, others are carried by the current and die on the way to the mouth. The bottom and banks of the rivers are covered with dead fish (we call it snenka in the Far East). Many crows, gulls and a variety of animals, up to bears, gather for this abundant food.

The fry, as soon as the yolk sac dissolves, leave the mound and swim downstream, feeding on small aquatic invertebrates and insects that have fallen into the water. In some species, they do not stay long in the river; in others, the river period extends to one or two years. Sometimes some males reach sexual maturity in the river, having very small sizes; such dwarf males may take part in spawning. Finally, some species form true residential freshwater forms that do not enter the sea. Similar forms are generally common in the salmon family.

Keta(Oncorhynchus keta) is the most widespread and widespread species of Far Eastern salmon. It differs from other species of this genus in a large number of pyloric appendages (up to 185), the number of gill rakers 19-25, gill rays 12-15. In marine attire (silver chum salmon), it has a silvery color, without stripes and spots, and the bases of the rays of the caudal fin are also silver. In the river, the color changes to brownish-yellow, with dark purple or dark crimson stripes (variegated chum salmon, or semi-catfish). By the time of spawning, the body of the chum salmon, as well as the palate, tongue and bases of the gill arches become completely black. The teeth, especially in the male, increase (catfish), and the meat becomes completely lean, whitish and flabby. It enters the rivers of chum salmon at the 3-5th year of life. Chum salmon is widespread along both sides of the Pacific Ocean, from San Francisco to the Bering Strait along the American coast and from Providence Bay to Peter the Great Bay and the river. Tumen-Ula - in Asian. It also enters the rivers of Siberia - Lena, Kolyma, Indigirka and Yana.

There are two forms of chum salmon: summer chum salmon (up to 80 cm long), entering the rivers from the first days of July to the middle and end of August; it predominates in the northern parts of the Pacific Ocean. Autumn chum salmon (up to 1 m long, larger and more valuable) prevails in the southern parts of the range. Both forms go to the Amur, the rivers of the Ayano-Okhotsk region and Sakhalin. The average length of running chum salmon on Sakhalin is 61 - 65 cm, weight 2.7-3.3 kg; north of the chum is larger. Autumn chum salmon enters the Amur from the end of August and the beginning of September and rises along the rivers much higher than the summer one. Often it spawns already under the ice. For spawning, the chum salmon chooses quiet areas of small rivers, the bottom of which is covered with small pebbles and gravel. In severe winters, spawning grounds often freeze to the bottom and mass death of offspring is observed. Autumn chum salmon suffer less from the cold, as it prefers to spawn in groundwater outlets. Chum salmon eggs are large, 6.5-9.1 mm in diameter. Caviar is laid in holes knocked out in the ground, after which the female pours a gravel mound up to 2-3 m long and 1.5-2 m wide over them. . In chum salmon, forms ripening in fresh water are unknown. In the rivers of America, sometimes prematurely matured males are found, but they also go to the rivers from the sea.

Pink salmon(Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) has small scales. In the sea, her body is painted silver, there are many small dark spots on the caudal fin. In the river, the color changes: dark spots cover the back, sides and head, by the time of spawning the head and fins become almost black, and the whole body becomes brown, except for the belly, which remains white. The proportions of the body change especially strongly: in males, a huge hump grows on the back, the jaws lengthen and curve, strong teeth grow on them. The once slender and beautiful fish becomes ugly.

Pink salmon is a relatively small salmon, it rarely reaches 68 cm in length, but its small size is compensated by its mass character. It is widely distributed: along the American coast it enters all rivers, starting from the river. Sacramento as far south as Alaska. It also enters the Arctic Ocean, pink salmon has repeatedly been recorded in the Colville and Mackenzie rivers, and along the Asian coast - in Kolyma, Indigirka, Lena and Yana. On the Asian coast of the Pacific Ocean, pink salmon spawns in the rivers flowing into the Bering and Okhotsk Seas; it is also found on the Commander and Kuril Islands, Sakhalin, Hokkaido and the northern part of Hondo Island. To the south, it goes to Peter the Great Bay, however, it is difficult to establish the southern border, since pink salmon was often mixed with Sima.

Pink salmon does not rise very high along the rivers. So, it enters the Amur in mass quantities in June and rises to the river. Ussuri. As a rule, pink salmon spawns in places with a faster current, where the bottom is covered with rather large pebbles. Its caviar is large (5.5-8 mm in diameter), but more pale in color and with a shell that is more durable than that of chum salmon eggs. In 2-3 months after the death of the parents, fry emerge from the eggs, remaining in the mound until spring. In spring, they roll into the sea, reaching 3-3.5 cm in length.

In the sea, pink salmon actively feeds, and chooses more high-calorie food than chum salmon. If the food of chum salmon consists of more than 50% of pteropods and tunicates, then pink salmon prefers small fish, fry (30%) and crustaceans (50%). Therefore, it grows and matures unusually quickly: 18 months after the migration to the sea, it already returns to the rivers to lay eggs and die. True, opinions were expressed that a significant part of pink salmon spawns in the third or fourth year of life. However, this is hardly the case. Sea catches showed that in August only a few individuals remained in the sea, for some reason late in development. Pink salmon, apparently, along with salmon, is the most heat-loving species in the genus Oncorhynchus. It hibernates in those regions of the ocean where the surface temperature does not drop below 5°C. This circumstance, apparently, also contributes to its rapid growth.

Pink salmon catches, as a rule, fluctuate periodically. It has been established that pink salmon enters the rivers of Primorye in greater numbers in odd years, while in even years it is insignificant. In the Amur and on the western coast of Kamchatka, the opposite picture is observed - pink salmon is caught most of all in even years. According to L. S. Berg, this periodicity is well explained by a two-year life cycle. If unfavorable conditions, for example, freezing of spawning grounds or overfishing of spawners, reduce the number of any generation, then after 18 months it, returning to the river, will produce an insignificant amount of caviar, and the consequences of this catastrophe, as L. S. Berg believed, will stretch for a whole a number of generations. This is the simplest explanation for the cyclical nature of catches; there are others, but it is still difficult to say whether they correspond to reality. It has been noted that the more intensively pink salmon is caught, the less sharp are the fluctuations in its cyclicity. Along with chum salmon, pink salmon is a massive fishery object. For example, in Kamchatka, its catches account for 80% of the total salmon catch.

Pink salmon, like other Pacific salmon, has been repeatedly tried to acclimatize in other parts of the world, but success has been insignificant. In 1956, the transportation of Sakhalin pink salmon caviar to the rivers of the Murmansk coast began. The fry that hatched were released into the rivers flowing into the Barents and White Seas. At first, the juveniles died in the new conditions; only when additional food was applied and already grown juveniles began to be released, in 1960 pink salmon came in bulk to the rivers to spawn. In the new place, she became much larger and fatter. Part of the pink salmon came to spawn in the rivers of Norway, where it was called "Russian salmon". But in subsequent years, the approaches of pink salmon in the European north were small. On the other side of the Atlantic, the Canadians successfully transplanted pink salmon from the rivers of British Columbia to the Newfoundland region.

The third species of the Far Eastern salmon genus is red, or sockeye(Oncorhynchus nerka), - is not as widespread among us as pink salmon and chum salmon. Along the Asian coast of the Pacific Ocean, it enters only the rivers of Kamchatka, the Anadyr and, to a lesser extent, the rivers of the Commander and Kuril Islands. Along the American coast, it is much more widely distributed, especially in Alaska, it goes south to California. Red is a more cold-loving species and does not occur in the sea at surface temperatures above 2°C.

It is easy to distinguish it from other species of the genus Oncorhynchus by its numerous (30-40) densely seated gill rakers. The meat of the sockeye salmon is not pink, like other salmon, but intensely red in color and excellent in taste. At sea, it is silvery, and only the back is painted in dark blue. The courtship attire is very spectacular: the back and sides become bright red, the head is green, the dorsal and anal fins turn bloody. There is not enough black color, which is common in the wedding attire of chum salmon and pink salmon; only in a mature male, black spots appear at the end of the caudal fin, and in females, sometimes dark transverse stripes appear on the body. However, the coloration is very variable. In the rivers of Bering Island, golden-bronze sockeye comes across. Going to spawn in the river basin. Oly (Tauyskaya Bay of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk) red also does not deserve this name, since its color is greenish and only the belly is slightly pink.

In length, representatives of this species reach 80 cm. Even S. P. Krasheninnikov noted that "this fish goes more to those rivers that flow from lakes." Indeed, it spawns preferably in lakes, in places where groundwater comes out.

Sockeye caviar is smaller (4.7 mm), intensely red. This fish enters the rivers quite early, in Kamchatka at the end of May - June. Spawning is delayed until the end of summer, on Bering Island - until December.

Red fry emerge from the eggs in the middle of winter, but remain in the mounds until March. Unlike chum salmon and pink salmon, fry live in fresh water for a long time. Most roll into the sea only the next year after hatching, reaching 7-12 cm in length, some linger for 2 or 3 years, only a few go to sea pastures in the same summer. Sexually mature red becomes most often at the 5-6th year of life.

In the sea, the redfish feeds mainly on crustaceans. Of all salmon, she especially prefers relatively small, but very fatty kalyanid crustaceans, colored red with carotenoid pigments. These pigments pass from swallowed crustaceans into sockeye salmon meat.

In r. The big one and a number of others in Kamchatka are entered by two forms of red - spring and autumn (summer), the spawning dates of which differ by 15-20 days. Similar late spawning red in the river. Kamchatka is singled out in a separate form "Azabach". The ability of sockeye salmon to form residential forms that ripen in fresh water is remarkable. They are widespread in the lakes of America, and in some cases only males (dwarf, or additional) are noted, but sometimes females also mature. We have a residential red found in Kronotsky, Nachikinsky, Far and Near Lakes of the Kamchatka Peninsula. According to Soviet researchers, the number of the dwarf form can increase so much that it can compete with the juveniles of the anadromous form in the struggle for food. In the years when the maturation of red salmon without a skate in the sea becomes massive, the salmon industry suffers significant damage, since dwarf forms are not used by fishery. In the United States, Canada and Japan, residential red is often bred as an object of sport fishing. In favorable conditions, it can reach 700 g of weight and is a desirable prey for the amateur angler.

Chinook salmon(Oncorhynchus tschawytscha) is the largest and most valuable of the Pacific salmon. The average size of a walking chinook salmon is 90 cm, but there are also much larger specimens, reaching more than 50 kg of weight. The taste qualities of chinook meat have been famous for a long time. S. P. Krasheninnikov wrote: “Of the fish there, there is no taste like it. The Kamchadals revere the announced fish so highly that they eat the first fish, baked on the fire, with an expression of great joy. The Americans call the Chinook salmon king salmon - “king salmon”, and the Japanese gave it the title of “prince of salmon”.

Chinook differs from other salmon in a large (more than 15) number of gill rays. Its back, dorsal and caudal fins are covered with small round black spots. The courtship attire is less pronounced than in chum salmon, pink salmon and red salmon, only the male becomes blackish during spawning, with red spots.

Like the red chinook, it gravitates in its distribution to the American Pacific coast, where it goes south to California. It is scarce along the Asian coast, although it occasionally enters many rivers from the north of Hokkaido in the south to Anadyr in the north. In our country, chinook salmon most of all enters the rivers of Kamchatka, and it spawns earlier than other salmon, from mid-May. The “great joy” of the natives of Kamchatka when they caught chinook salmon is understandable: its appearance in the rivers spoke of the onset of spring, the end of the often hungry winter. Chinook spawning lasts all summer. A powerful fish is not afraid of a fast current (1-1.5 m/sec) and knocks out spawning pits in large pebbles and cobblestones with its tail. The female lays up to 14 thousand and larger eggs, like chum salmon. The fry that have left the eggs for quite a long time, like the red fry, remain in the river; some of them, especially males, mature there, reaching a length of 75-175 mm. True residential forms are also found in American rivers. In the Columbia River, Chinook salmon is represented by two forms - spring and summer. The timing of spawning in these forms is hereditary.

Chinook salmon live in the sea from 4 to 7 years. Like the red one, this is a rather cold-loving species and feeds preferably in the waters of the Bering Sea, adjacent to the ridge of the Commander and Aleutian Islands. Chinook salmon feeds mainly on small fish in the sea. Due to its rarity, its commercial value is insignificant in our country.

coho salmon(Oncorhynchus kisutsch) resembles Chinook salmon in distribution. Along the American coast, it enters the rivers from Monterey Bay to Alaska, along the Asian coast, single entries from Anadyr to the Hokkaido rivers are noted, and only in the rivers of the Kamchatka Peninsula does it spawn in large numbers. Coho salmon differs well from other salmon in the bright silver color of the scales (hence the Japanese and American name - "silver salmon" and our old one - "white fish"). The tail stalk of coho salmon is high. The sides of the body are above the lateral line; the back and upper rays of the caudal fin are covered with dark spots. The length of the coho salmon reaches 84 cm, the average size is 60 cm. The Alaskan coho salmon is somewhat larger than the Kamchatka coho salmon.

Coho salmon enter rivers later than other salmon and spawn from early September to March, often under ice. During spawning, both males and females turn dark crimson. The fry, like those of the red and Chinook salmon, roll into the sea after one or two years of life in the rivers. In the sea, coho lives a little and already in the third year it becomes sexually mature. Coho salmon is the most thermophilic of all Pacific salmon: it winters at a temperature of 5.5-9 ° C, south of pink salmon. Premature maturation of some males in fresh waters was noted; such dwarf males were earlier called "uakchich" by the Kamchadals.

The last species of the genus Oncorhynchus is sima, or mazu(Oncorhynchus masu), is the only Pacific salmon found only along the Asian coast. Sima enters the rivers of Kamchatka, Sakhalin, Hokkaido and Khondo, goes south along the mainland coast to Fuzan and the river. Tumen-Ula. Outwardly, the sima is somewhat similar to the coho salmon, only the anal fin is more notched and dark transverse stripes run along the body even in an adult fish. Sim reaches 63 cm in length and 6 kg of weight. Its spawning in the Amur and Primorye occurs at the same time as pink salmon, with which it is often mixed. Sima juveniles live in fresh water for up to a year or more; Sim becomes sexually mature at the 3-4th year of life.

Remarkable is the ability of Sims to easily form residential freshwater forms. Residential sim isolated in shape shapeshifting sims(morpha formosanus), found in Japan from Hokkaido to Kyushu and on about. Taiwan. There is no passing form so far south, and the living sima is a witness to those times when the sea was much colder. Residential forms can be formed literally before our eyes - this happened in the Japanese lake Biwa. When on the river Sedanke, near Vladivostok, a dam was built, Sima, living above the dam, turned into a residential form.

Genus Real salmon(Salmo) differs from Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus) in a shorter anal fin containing only 7-10 branched rays, and in other characters. The vomer bone in the skull of salmon is elongated, and its back part in young individuals bears teeth.

Real salmon acquire nuptial attire during spawning, as do Pacific salmon, but do not die after the first spawning. Salmon are widely distributed. These are migratory and residential fish of the northern parts of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, they are in the Baltic, Black, Caspian and Aral Seas. Residential forms in America and Eurasia are very widespread, reaching in the south to the Mediterranean and the upper reaches of the Euphrates, they are absent only throughout Siberia.

Noble salmon, or salmon(Salmo salar), is the most famous species. This large beautiful fish reaches one and a half meters in length and 39 kg of weight. The body of the salmon is covered with small silvery scales; there are no spots below the lateral line. Salmon in the sea feed on small fish and crustaceans; entering the rivers for spawning, he stops eating and becomes very thin. The courtship attire is expressed in the darkening of the body and the appearance of red and orange spots on the sides of the body and head. In males, the jaws are elongated and curved, a hook-shaped protrusion is formed on the upper jaw, which is included in the notch on the lower.

Salmon feeding areas - the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean. From here it enters to spawn in the rivers of Europe from Portugal in the south to the White Sea and the river. Carriages in the north. Along the American coast, it is distributed from the river. Connecticut in the south to Greenland in the north. There are several species of the genus Salmo in the Pacific basin, but they are few compared to the Pacific salmon of the genus Oncorhynchus. Previously, salmon were extremely numerous in all the rivers of Europe, where there were suitable spawning grounds. Walter Scott mentions the times when Scottish laborers, when they hired, made it a condition that they were not fed salmon too often. Hydro-construction, pollution of the rivers by household and factory waste, and mainly overfishing, have led to the fact that this condition is easily satisfied in our time. The number of salmon has now declined sharply, and artificial breeding is widely used in special hatcheries to maintain the herd.

The course of salmon in the rivers is rather complicated. In our rivers flowing into the Barents and White Seas, large autumn salmon go from August until freezing. Its sex products are very poorly developed. The course is interrupted with the onset of winter. Part of the autumn salmon, which did not have time to enter the rivers, winters in the estuarine spaces and enters the river immediately after the ice breaks (mid-late May). Such salmon is called "ice". Autumn salmon spends a year in the river without feeding, and only the next autumn comes to spawning grounds. It seems that this form needs a dormant period at a lower temperature. Our eminent ichthyologist L. S. Berg called this form winter by analogy with winter cereals. Following the icing in June, salmon “cutting” enters the rivers, mainly large females, with already significantly developed reproductive products. In July, it is replaced by summer salmon, or "low water", in which caviar and milk are well developed. Zaroyka and low water reach spawning grounds and lay eggs in the same autumn. This is a spring form. Together with the low water, “tinda” enters the rivers - small (45-53 cm in length and 1-2 kg in weight) males that have matured in the sea in one year. Many (sometimes up to 50%) male salmon do not go to sea at all. They mature in the river and have mature milk already at a length of 10 cm, so females predominate among autumn salmon, ice and low water. In some rivers, along with autumn salmon, “leaf fall” enters - a small form similar to tindu, but among which there are females. Having been at sea for only one year, she returns to spawn and spawns in the same autumn, without needing a dormant period. In our country, on the Kola Peninsula and in the White Sea basin, the passages of salmon are compressed in 4-5 summer months and are interrupted by freeze-up. The picture is different in the rivers of Western Europe. There, the course stretches for the whole year: salmon, corresponding to our autumn salmon and icing, goes to the Rhine in November, cutting and low water - in May, tinda - in July. In Norway, the summer course prevails; apparently, the same can be said about the salmon of the American coast.

We present only a general scheme of the spawning run of noble salmon. In each individual river, it has its own characteristics, and it is simply impossible to list them.

Apparently, the winter form of salmon cannot turn into spring, and vice versa. In the same way, it is not known whether both spring and winter salmon can develop from the eggs of one female.

Salmon spawns in autumn (September - October) in the north and in winter - in more southern regions. The female digs a large (up to 2-3 m long) hole in the sandy-pebble soil and buries the fertilized eggs in it. Here is how the subtle observer Fritsch describes the spawning of salmon: “The female lies down in a hole, resting her head on a stone on its edge. A male swims up to her in the evening hours or early in the morning and stops, holding his head near her genital opening. As soon as the female, irritated by the presence of the male, releases some eggs, he rushes forward, touching her with his side, and releases milk. Then he stops about 1 m in front of the female and gradually releases a stream of milk onto the eggs, which now run out of the female in a whole stream; the latter, at the same time, with lateral movements of the tail, throws sand and pebbles at the eggs. Spawned salmon swim downstream, emaciated from a long hunger strike, wounded, with frayed fins. Some of them, especially males, die from exhaustion, but those who reach the sea again acquire a silvery color, begin to feed and restore strength. Although death after spawning is not mandatory for noble salmon, as with chum salmon and pink salmon, rare fish spawn again. A single case of five-time spawning was noted. The more developed fishing in the river, the lower the percentage of re-spawning fish.

The water temperature at salmon spawning grounds in winter does not exceed 6 ° C, so the eggs develop slowly. Only in May, the juveniles hatch from the eggs and then live in fresh water for a long time. Young salmon do not look like adult fish and have even been described as a separate species in the past. These are brisk and mobile fish, motley-colored, with dark transverse stripes on the sides, with a dark back covered with brown and red round spots. In the north, they are called "parr" in our country.

Parr feed in the rivers on caddisfly larvae, crustaceans, and insects that have fallen into the water. They descend very slowly to the mouths. After 1-5 years, having reached a size of 9-18 cm in length, they go out to sea. At this time, dark stripes and spots disappear from them, and the body is covered with silvery scales. This transformation is often called smoltification from the accepted English name for the silvery stage - “smolt”.

But not all parr swim to the mouth and turn into smolts. A significant part of them remains in spawning grounds and matures there. These are the dwarf males that have already been mentioned. They take part in the spawning of fish that came from the sea, when the main male, standing next to the female, begins to drive away large rivals. Females need to migrate to the sea to mature; in rivers, they usually do not mature. But if the female at the smolt stage is transplanted into a pond and provided with abundant food, then in the end it is possible to achieve her maturation.

In the sea, salmon grows extremely fast. If for 3 years of life in the river the parr grows by 10 cm, then for one year of life in the sea 23-24 cm are added (data for the Ponoy River).

Salmon are fast and strong fish and can take quite long journeys. So, on August 10, 1935 in the river. Vyg was caught salmon tagged with a Norwegian tag on June 10 of the same year near Trondheims Fjord. In other words, she swam 2500 km in 50 days at an average speed of 50 km per day!

In large northern lakes (Lake Vener, Lake Labrador, we have in Ladoga and Onega and a number of others) there is a special lake form of salmon - lake salmon(S. salar morpha sebago).

This form does not go to the sea, but feeds in the lake and goes to spawn in the rivers flowing into the lake. Lake salmon are usually smaller than anadromous and more spotted, spots on the sides are also below the lateral line. The origin of the lake form will become clear if we remember that the lakes in which it is found, as a rule, are bays separated from the sea. Often other inhabitants of the sea also live in them - a four-horned slingshot (Muohosephalus quadricornis) and brackish-water crustaceans. But in general, the tendency to form residential forms in noble salmon is much less than in a closely related species - brown trout.

Trout(Salmo trutta), called taimen salmon in the Baltic Sea, differs well from salmon in color. The body of the brown trout, both above and below the lateral line, is covered with numerous black spots, often shaped like the letter x. On the sides of the head and dorsal fin spots are round. The courtship attire is less pronounced than in the salmon: the jaws are not so strongly curved and extended, the males have pinkish rounded spots on the body.

Like salmon, trout is an anadromous fish. It enters the rivers of Europe from the Iberian Peninsula in the south to the Pechora in the north. There is also in the White, Baltic, Black and Aral Seas. There were no brown trout in America before human acclimatization there; the extreme western point of its natural distribution is Iceland.

The usual sizes of brown trout are up to 30-70 cm in length and 1-5 kg ​​in weight, but sometimes up to 12-13 kg. Like salmon, it is a valuable commercial fish.

It is rather difficult to describe the way of life of brown trout, since this species is unusually variable. It can spawn in the upper reaches of the rivers like noble salmon, but sometimes spawning occurs in shallow tributaries, lower reaches and cold-water lakes. Brown trout are more attached to fresh water and, apparently, do not make large migrations in the sea, adhering to estuarine areas. The stomachs of trout caught in the sea contain small fish (gerbil, juvenile herring and smelt, stickleback), large crustaceans. It has been noticed that the spawning trout continues to feed, although less intensively, which the salmon never does. Young brown trout are very similar to parr salmon and spend 3 to 7 years in fresh water. The trout of the Baltic Sea basin usually leaves fresh water earlier (in the second or third year of life). Having rolled into the sea (with a length of 20 cm), for 4 years of marine life, trout usually reaches 50-60 cm. In other words, it grows more slowly than salmon. There are observations that the trout rises from the sea to the rivers for wintering. Like salmon, trout have spring and winter forms.

Brown trout, living in the Black and Azov Seas, forms a special subspecies - Black Sea salmon(Salmo trutta labrax), which differs from the typical form in a large number of gill rakers and a high caudal peduncle. The color of the Black Sea salmon is different: sometimes the black spots characteristic of brown trout may be completely absent. This subspecies has recently become quite rare. It enters the rivers of the Black Sea coast for spawning in spring (late April - early May), in the Sukhumi region starting from February. Spawning takes place in winter. The Black Sea trout is larger than the typical one (usually 7 kg, rarely up to 24 kg).

Apparently, when the Caspian Sea was connected to the Sea of ​​Azov, brown trout penetrated into it, eventually forming a new subspecies - Caspian salmon(Salmo trutta caspius). In the Caspian, it is called Caspian salmon or simply salmon. The Caspian salmon is similar at the same time to the Black Sea and salmon. It has a lower caudal peduncle. This is apparently the largest salmon in Europe: there are known cases of catching fish weighing 33 and even 51 kg! Similarity with salmon for a long time forced taxonomists to consider the Caspian salmon a subspecies of salmon. Only recently has it been established that, according to the structural features of the embryo in the egg and the number of chromosomes, this is a strongly deviated form of brown trout.

Caspian salmon enters for spawning in the rivers mainly on the western coast, most of all in the Kura, less often in the Terek, Araks, Lankaranka. It enters the largest river of the Caspian Sea - the Volga, in single specimens. But this was not always the case: there are indications in the archives that in the 17th century. salmon in commercial quantities was caught near Kazan, entered the Kama, Belaya and Oka. The high palatability of the meat of this form quickly led to its overfishing, and the change in the nature of the Volga runoff practically caused the complete disappearance of the Volga herd. Now only in Kura there is a spawning herd that can serve as an object of fishing. Caspian salmon is bred in a number of hatcheries artificially.

The Caspian salmon also has spring and winter forms. The spring form enters the Kura in October with almost mature sexual products, rises relatively low along the river and spawns in the same year. This is a relatively small salmon (up to 12 kg). The large winter form spawns from November to February (more often in December - January). Her sex products are poorly developed, the average weight is up to 15 kg, and she rises very high, to the sources of the Aragvi. Now, when the dams of hydroelectric power stations have blocked the way to the Aragvi salmon, it spawns in the basin of Alazani and Khram. From 8 to 11 months, winter salmon mature in the river. Juveniles live in the river for up to two years. Similar seasonal forms were also found in salmon entering other rivers (Samur, Terek).

The easternmost form of anadromous trout - Aral salmon(Salmo trutta aralensis), which inhabits the Aral Sea and rises to spawn in the Amu Darya. This subspecies is close to the Caspian, but differs in a smaller number of vertebrae and a larger head. Its length is up to 1 m, weight is up to 13-14 kg. Very little is known about the lifestyle of this rare form.

We have already mentioned that brown trout are better than salmon tied to fresh water. Wherever there is an anadromous form, and also where it existed during periods of a colder climate, there are lake and stream forms of brown trout that ripen without leaving the sea. They are called trout.

lake trout(Salmo trutta m. lacustris) lives in cold lakes with clean, clear water. Lake trout spawns in fast, rapids rivers flowing into the lake. As a rule, it is smaller than the anadromous trout, although sometimes, for example, in Lake Ladoga, its weight can reach 8-10 kg. During feeding, the coloration of lake trout resembles that of brown trout. The breeding attire is very bright: the silver color of the body sides and belly is replaced by dark gray in females, orange stripes and bright spots appear in males, dorsal fins darken, and pelvic fins in males become orange or bright pink.

Lake trout is found in the lakes of the northwest of our country. There is also a number of lakes in Finland, Sweden, Norway. The Black Sea and Caspian subspecies of brown trout also form lake forms, which are very diverse in color and lifestyle. There are no anadromous brown trout in the Mediterranean now, but lake trout, often reaching large sizes, live in the cold lakes of the Alps and in the Balkans. They are often described as independent species and subspecies. We also have lake trout in Transcaucasia (Chaldyr-Gel, Taparavan, Ritsa, Eizenam and many others lakes). Particularly curious are the trout of the large lake Ohrid, located on the border between Yugoslavia and Albania. It has two forms. One of them, large, predatory, reaching 10 kg of weight, is singled out as a separate species - summerhouse(Salmo letnica). The second - a small, silvery fish that feeds on plankton - has changed so much that it had to be isolated in a separate genus with one species - belvitsa(Salmothymus ochridanus). It is remarkable that the juveniles of both forms are practically indistinguishable from each other. A similar picture is observed in our Dagestan lake Eisenam. Two forms live there - one, small, surprisingly brightly colored: on the sides of the body there are large red and small black spots, the dorsal fin is black-spotted and fatty - red-spotted; it reaches a length of 34, more often 24-25 cm and feeds on plankton and pond snails. But another form lives in the same lake, deeper, larger, dark-colored and leading a predatory lifestyle. The Eisenam trout show the way in which the Ohrid trout may have originated. Lake Ohrid is much older than Lake Eisenam (it is not without reason called the Balkan Baikal), and the degree of divergence of forms is much greater.

Lake trout rise for spawning from lakes to rivers and lay large (up to 5 mm), orange-colored caviar on rifts with a pebbly bottom. Caviar, like brown trout and salmon, they bury in mounds. The juveniles that emerge from the eggs turn into parr and roll into the lake; but a significant part of juveniles matures in rivers and streams, down to the smallest ones, turning into brook, or common, trout(Salmo trutta morpha fario).

Brook trout are medium-sized fish (usually 25-35 cm long and 200-500 g of weight, extremely rarely up to 2 kg), very brightly colored. The back of the brook trout is dark, the belly is white or golden yellow, small spots are scattered on the sides and fins - black, orange and red, often surrounded by a light rim. It has been noted that the color of brook trout depends on the color of the water and the soil of reservoirs. Dimensions and weight are also determined by environmental conditions. The larger the stream in which the trout lives, the more its food objects - small crustaceans and insect larvae - in it, the larger it can reach. Trout also feed on insects that have fallen into the water, large ones can feed on small fish (minnows, sculpins) and frog tadpoles. In general, the way of life of the brook trout resembles parr, which, in essence, it is. This is a parr that reaches maturity in a stream.

Brook trout are widely distributed. They are everywhere where there is anadromous and lake trout, and, except for dough, in the mountain streams of the Mediterranean (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Spain, Portugal, France, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Italy, Greece, Asia Minor, the upper reaches of the Euphrates and Amu Darya). These fish have remained here from the time when the climate of the Mediterranean was much colder and anadromous trout could live there. A similar phenomenon was noted for Pacific salmon (the genus Oncorhynchus), where the resident form of sima lives in the mountain streams of the island. Taiwan, and in the tropical warm sea surrounding Taiwan, there is no original migratory form of this species.

Brook trout have no commercial value. Small, low-feeding, fast-flowing rivers, as a rule, cannot feed a large population that could become an object of significant fishing. But trout is a wonderful object of amateur fishing with a bait. Most often it is caught on a worm, on a small fish and an artificial fly. Larger lake trout are good for spinning. Brook and lake trout, as well as anadromous trout, have long been objects of artificial breeding. At first, trout were only planted in those streams and lakes where they had not been before; where living conditions were suitable, the results were good; very soon they switched from acclimatization to artificial breeding. For this purpose, artificially fertilized eggs are buried in the pebbly soil of the river in the same way as fish do in nature. More often, special wooden boxes are used for laying eggs or they are incubated at fish hatcheries in special devices. The fry that have come out of the eggs, after their yolk bladder has resolved, are fed with live small crustaceans, as well as cheap animal products (spleen, heart, liver, brain) pounded into gruel. When young trout grow up, they can be fed cottage cheese, meat, fish and frogs, blood and bone meal. Having reached 5-10 g of weight, trout are released into natural reservoirs, and recently their cultivation up to 2-3 years in special rearing ponds has become widespread. With abundant feeding, you can get 50 q or more per hectare of pond annually. Curiously, if trout are fed with crustaceans, the carotenoid pigment astaxanthin contained in them passes into the trout meat, turning it pink; with a different diet, the meat remains white.

Acclimatization and breeding have changed views on the taxonomy of brown trout and trout. Previously, they were considered separate groups. Linnaeus, for example, singled out brook and lake trout as separate species. But the brook trout, transported to New Zealand, rolled into the sea and turned into anadromous trout. At present, it can be considered proven that anadromous trout, lake and brook trout easily pass into each other. Trout sometimes roll into the estuarine spaces of the rivers of the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas, as if making an attempt to pass into the anadromous form. Trout released into the Baltic Sea easily acquire a silver color, grow quickly and return to spawn in the form of brown trout. Where there are migratory and residential forms, they form a single herd that spawns together. The population of anadromous trout is dominated by females, the lack of males is compensated by the brook trout, where the latter predominate. It is not difficult to understand why this happens: in salmon, like most other fish, males mature earlier than females (at smaller sizes), and therefore their period of life in the sea can be shortened and even completely drop out.

The third species of the genus salmon - ishkhan, in Armenian "prince" (Salmo ischchan), - lives in Lake Sevan, where it forms several forms. Baer also wrote that the trout of Sevan are “completely different from the vermilion-dotted trout found in all the rivers of Europe... These species spawn at different times of the year, so that one starts in October and continues in November, followed by throwing caviar of another breed, etc. throughout the winter until the beginning of May. In Ishkhan, the upper jaw does not extend beyond the posterior margin of the eye, there are 50–90 pyloric appendages, and the gill rakers are club-shaped. During the feeding period, fish of this species are silvery-white, with a steel-colored back. There are few dark spots, and they are never o-shaped, like those of the kumschi. During spawning, males darken, their fins become almost black and 2-3 red spots appear on the sides of the body. In females, the breeding attire is poorly expressed. Ishkhan spawns in the lake itself, at a depth of 0.5-3 le, on fine gravel. Sexually mature individuals of this form are called bakhtak or winter bakhtak. 2 herds are known: one spawns in November - December, the other - from mid-January to the end of March. The main food of the ishkhan is amphipods. This relatively large fish (up to 15 kg in weight, more often about 30 cm in length and 300-400 g) is highly valued and is the object of a significant trade. The form, known as the summer bakhtak, spawns in spring and summer in the Bakhtak-chai and Gedak-bulakh rivers, as well as in the estuarine areas of the lake. Bojack, a smaller (up to 35 cm) form, also spawns in the lake at a depth of 1 M in October - November. Finally, there is a real passing form - gegharkuni, similar to lake trout. For spawning, gegharkuni goes to the rivers in nuptial attire (lilac-pink spots) and with well-developed sexual products. Gegharkuni spawns in winter. There are indications that there is also a winter form in Sevan. Part of the juvenile gegharkuni does not roll into the lake, turning into a brook trout, called alabalah and very similar to the stream form of trout.

In 1929, Soviet scientists M. A. Fortunatov and L. V. Arnoldi suggested that gegarkuni would take root well in the large Kyrgyz lake Issyk-Kul. The transportation of caviar was carried out in 1930, 1935 and 1936. Gegharkuni began to breed in the river. Ton with tributaries Aksai and Karasu, which flows into Issyk-Kul. Its growth in the new place has increased: if in Sevan individuals 60 cm long and 4 “g in weight are extremely rare, then in Issyk-Kul this form reaches 89 cm in length and 10 kg in weight. The growth rate and fatness of gegarkuni increased by at least one and a half times, which is explained by the transition to predatory feeding: 82% of the food of the Issyk-Kul form is small fish, most often chars (genus Nemachilus). The proportions of the body and color have changed: the Issyk-Kul gegarkuni is densely covered with brown spots of jagged-rounded, semi-cruciform or ring shape. Violet and lilac tones, characteristic of the Sevan trout, have disappeared. It is remarkable that in a new place, gegharkuni can also turn into a residential river form that does not slide into the lake and is different from both the alabalakh and the parent form.

The example of the acclimatization of gegharkuni once again shows how flexible and changeable salmon are and how easily they adapt to changing living conditions.

There are no representatives of the genus Salmo throughout Siberia. They appear only on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, where special species inhabit the rivers along the Asian and American coasts, which are attributed to a special subgenus (Parasalmo). We also have two such species in Kamchatka.

Kamchatka salmon(Salmo penshinensis) is relatively little studied. Krasheninnikov and Steller, the pioneers of the fauna of Kamchatka, knew about it and distinguished it from the Pacific salmon, and it was according to their data that the Kamchatka salmon was described by Pallas. After that, until 1930, it did not fall into the hands of ichthyologists, and its very existence began to be doubted. It has now been established that Kamchatka salmon spawns in the rivers of the western coast of Kamchatka, in smaller numbers it enters the rivers of the eastern coast and the coast of Okhotsk. One case of her capture in the Amur Estuary was noted. This is a rather large (up to 96 cm) fish of a silvery color, with a few dark spots above the lateral line, a faint pink stripe on the sides of the body and pinkish gill covers. The marriage attire is very peculiar: the stripe becomes bright red. Life at sea is completely unexplored. The Kamchatka salmon enters the rivers from September to November, spends the winter in the river and spawns in the spring. Spawned fish roll into the sea in May - June. Regarding the second Kamchatka species - mykizhi (Salmo mykiss) - there is an assumption that this is not an independent species, but only a residential form of Kamchatka salmon. Mikizha lives in the rivers of Kamchatka (Bolshaya, Bystraya, Tigil, the Kamchatka River, there is also in Penzhina), as if it does not go out to sea, with the exception of estuarine spaces. It has a very bright coloration. Longitudinal red stripe on the sides of the body persists beyond spawning time. There are many o-shaped and round dark spots on the body and fins, the ventral fins are bright red. Sizes up to 90 cm.

One of these two species is found on about. Bering in the river flowing from Lake Sarannoe. It is generally agreed that Kamchatka noble salmon (of the genus Salmo) are very close, if not identical, to the American species of this genus.

In addition to salmon and trout acclimatized by humans, North and Central America have their own specific species of salmon, the number of which is difficult to establish. American taxonomists of the 19th - early 20th centuries. described more than 30 species of the genus Salmo, of which only two are currently recognized as independent by most researchers.

steelhead salmon(Salmo gairdneri; steelhead trout, rainbow trout) is a rather large (up to 115 cm) fish with a metallic blue back and silvery sides. There are dark spots above the lateral line; males have a red stripe on the sides of the body during spawning. Steelhead salmon feed for two years in the waters of the Pacific Ocean and enter rivers from California to Alaska at the age of 3-5. Spawning in late winter or spring. Juveniles slide into the sea at the age of 1-2 and can undertake significant sea voyages, during which they feed on crustaceans, small fish and squid. Steelhead salmon also form residential forms similar to lake and brook trout. They are very diverse and have been repeatedly described as independent species. For their bright and variegated coloring, residential forms are called rainbow trout (rainbow trout). One of these forms, previously described under the name rainbow trout(Salmo irideus), has become an object of pond fish farming and is widely bred in many countries, we have similar farms. The history of rainbow trout acclimatization in South America is curious. On the border of Peru and Bolivia, at an altitude of 3812 m above sea level, there is a huge (222 km long, FROM km wide) Lake Titicaca. There are practically no commercial fish in it, so in 1939 several species of residential salmon were brought there. All of them reached previously unheard of sizes, the rainbow trout was ahead of everyone (122 cm in length and 22.7 kg in weight). This case is very reminiscent of the acclimatization of gegharkuni in Lake Issyk-Kul.

Currently, many researchers consider Kamchatka salmon and steelhead salmon to be one species, and mykizha is considered to be the Kamchatka analogue of rainbow trout.

Second American view - salmon clark(Salmo clarkii) seems to be to steelhead salmon as brown trout is to salmon. It is more attached to fresh waters, does not go far from the pre-estuary areas and spawns not in large channels, but in small channels. Clark's salmon differs from the steelhead in a longer head, its back is greenish-blue, its sides are silvery, on the body, fins and head there are numerous black spots without a light border. The throat usually has distinct red spots, hence its English name "slaughtered trout" ("cutthroattrout" - "slit throat"). But this sign is unreliable - the spots may be yellow or disappear altogether; on the other hand, if the rainbow trout is kept on a special diet, it develops a similar coloration. Equally unreliable are other signs by which they were separated; nevertheless, they are good species, since they differ in the number of chromosomes and hardly interbreed in nature. This species is distributed from Mexico to Alaska. The migratory form reaches 76 cm in length and spawns from December to May. Juveniles live 2-3 years in fresh water, in the sea - a year or more. Like the steelhead salmon, this species forms many living forms, extremely diverse in lifestyle, size, color, and other characteristics. A well-known resident form from the lakes of the Yellowstone Reserve. Some researchers bring together the Clark's salmon with the Kamchatka rainbow trout.

Nothing definite can yet be said about other American "species" of salmon. In all likelihood, if there are independent species among them, then very few. All other forms testify only to the extraordinary plasticity of salmon fish.

Representatives genus Goltsy(Salvelinus) are close to salmon of the genus Salmo. They differ from salmon by the absence of teeth on the coulter handle. Charrs, with the exception of one species that lives in America, never have dark spots on the body, so characteristic of real salmon. Loaches are widespread and extremely diverse in their morphology and lifestyle.

The central species of the genus should be considered arctic char(Salvelinus alpinus). It is very widely distributed: the area of ​​the anadromous form covers the entire Arctic Circle in a ring. Anadromous chars go to spawn in the rivers of Iceland, Norway, Murman, Svalbard, Novaya Zemlya, along the coast of Siberia in the Ob, Yenisei, Pyasina, rivers of Canada, Alaska and Greenland. This distribution is called circumpolar. Residential forms - relics of the ice age, go south much further: they are found in the Alpine lakes, the Baikal basin and the rivers flowing into Peter the Great Bay. There is also char in the Pacific Ocean, where it is called char. In the Pacific basin, it is found along the Asian and American coasts to the Amur and California. Throughout its vast range, it inhabits a variety of water bodies and forms many forms: anadromous, lacustrine-river and lacustrine. He also has dwarf males.

Anadromous chars are large, up to 88 cm in length and 15 kg in weight, silver-colored fish with a dark blue back, their sides are covered with rather large light spots. Entering the rivers, they darken, the back becomes greenish-brown, the sides are brownish, with a silvery sheen and numerous red or orange spots. The belly is usually grey-white and only in spawning charr is bright red or orange, the throat is white or orange, the pectoral, ventral and anal fins are pink or red, except for the front rays, which are usually milky white. Anadromous char spawns in autumn and early winter; some fish, probably in the spring. In some reservoirs, the spawning of char is very extended. In r. In the square and in the rivers of Novaya Zemlya, spring and winter races were noted near the char. Spawning occurs in small, fast springs, rivers and lakes on rocky pebble ground, near the coast, in places with a relatively slow current, at a depth of 13 to 46 cm. Like other salmon fish, the char builds a nest and digs eggs into the ground. Fish are distributed throughout the reservoir, choosing areas covered with fine gravel. At this time, they are very aggressive and defend their territory, attacking every object, especially those painted red. Then the loaches are divided into pairs. Males jump on each other like roosters, with protruding fins and eerily gaping mouth. Females at this time dig nests with sharp oscillatory movements of the tail. The signal for spawning is given by the female: having dug out a hole, she stops over it and trembles, releasing a portion of caviar. At the same time, the male releases milk. It is remarkable that the coloration, especially in males, changes dramatically. Cells containing dark pigment on the flanks, back, and head appear to be under the control of the nervous system. When the male circles around the female, the dark pigment is concentrated in the form of two longitudinal stripes on the sides of the body and one transverse stripe on the head between the eyes, the rest of the body becomes almost white, except for the fiery red belly. Having laid out several portions of orange eggs, the female buries it and begins to build a new nest. Males are polygamous and may spawn with several females in turn. It is interesting that, having spawned, the female for some time still continues to dig already unnecessary holes, and often, together with the male, eats the newly laid eggs. At the same time, it protects its spawning area for several days, vigorously driving away other fish. Spawning can take place both during the day and at night. In spawning, along with one large male, small, dwarf ones also take part. Loaches first start spawning at the age of 5-6 years, spawning, apparently, is not annual. Juveniles spend 2-4 years in the river, after which they slide into the sea. But the char does not go far into the sea and stays mainly in the mouth areas, in the area of ​​the river in which it was born. The duration of his stay at sea, as a rule, does not exceed 2-3 months. Anadromous char is a predator that consumes juveniles of other fish and small fish.

Not all loaches go out to sea. A significant part of them spawn in lakes and streams, and fatten in large rivers. Lake-river chars are smaller than anadromous chars (35-45 cm) and differ in a number of morphological features. They feed mainly on bottom mollusks and insect larvae.

Lacustrine forms of arctic char are also widespread. They spawn and feed in lakes without going beyond them. The taxonomy of lake charrs is extremely confusing, since many forms have been described as independent species. Currently, many ichthyologists believe that most lake chars are derived from one or a few species. However, the possibility is not ruled out that, living in an isolated lake, the loach population may turn into a separate species, as happened with the Sevan trout - ishkhan. The lake loaches of the Alps, Scotland, Scandinavia and our north are called palia. They were considered as a special species - Salvelinus lepechini.

Paly very varied in color. They are darker than the anadromous charr, the belly is pink, the anterior rays of the paired fins and anal and the lower ray of the caudal are white. The sides are usually covered with yellowish and orange spots. Some forms are almost black in color. In Ladoga and Onega lakes, two forms of palia are distinguished: puddle(red) and ridge(gray). The pudding palia is darker, keeps at a shallower depth, spawns in autumn on the mud and sands and reaches 5-7 kg of weight. The ridge, or pit, char is lighter, lives at a depth of up to 70-150 m, can spawn in spring, usually weighs up to 2 kg. In some deep-water alpine lakes, palia also break up into a number of forms: there in one lake you can catch "ordinary" palia, small, plankton-feeding, sometimes with a silvery color, and large, dark-colored, which live at great depths and lead a predatory lifestyle.

Many lacustrine forms of charr are described as independent species and subspecies from the lakes of Siberia. Of these, mention should be made of the Davatchans. Davatchan or "red fish", lives in Lake Frolikha and the river of the same name, which flows into the northeastern part of Lake Baikal. Sometimes it is also found in the nearby part of Baikal. The range of the davatchan lies far to the south of the main range of the Arctic charr; apparently, this is a relic of ice age.

The second remarkable form, perhaps deserving of a separate species, has been described as Dryagin's char(Salvelinus drjagini) from the Norilsk Lakes. Similar loaches live in the neighboring lake Khantayskoye (Yenisei basin). Among these loaches, there are forms with an extremely pronounced breeding attire, which makes them similar to Far Eastern salmon. These are high-bodied fish with a bright, fiery red body color. Their back is dark, the front rays of the paired fins are snow-white, and the lower jaw is greatly elongated and curved.

Various forms of char inhabit the lakes of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Thus, a large predatory form lives in Lake Dalnee, feeding mainly on stickleback. The breeding attire is very bright: loaches are painted in an intense yellow-orange color, with bright pink-red spots on the sides. In others, the sides are pinkish, the belly is orange-red. During the feeding period, individuals of this form have a greenish-gray back, silver-pink sides with a few rather large pink spots and a white belly. The proportions of the body in connection with the predatory lifestyle have changed: the body is thick, valky, the fins are shifted towards the tail. These loaches, like a pike, grab their prey with a quick, short throw. There are also very peculiar loaches in Lake Kronotsky. S.P. Krasheninnikov wrote about their merits in the following way: “There are a lot of fish in this lake, charr or Dolly Varden, as they are called in Okhotsk, which, however, is very different from the sea one, because it is larger in size and more pleasant in taste. It tastes a lot like ham, and for that, for a pleasant present, it is transported throughout Kamchatka. Possibly, there are two groups of loaches in this lake: fast-growing and slow-growing with autumn and spring spawning.

In the streams and rivers of the Kuril Islands, Japan, in Primorye up to Korea, a residential small Dolly Varden (char) is known, rarely reaching 32 cm. Its body is covered with numerous small red spots. In appearance and lifestyle, it is very similar to brook trout, with which it is often mixed.

Wherever loaches live in significant numbers, their local fishery is developed. In Kamchatka, for example, they are caught in the spring, during the period of migration to the sea, when there is still no mass flow of Pacific salmon. In some reservoirs, chars are serious pests that eat eggs and juveniles of Pacific salmon. However, in some cases, their harm is greatly exaggerated. During the spawning of chum salmon or pink salmon, the stomachs of charrs are filled with caviar, but this caviar is mainly washed out of the nests by the current and is still doomed to death. Rather, one can consider the loaches as a kind of orderlies, destroying everything unnecessary in the reservoir. In addition, in some lakes, predatory forms of charr feed on stickleback, a competitor to salmon juveniles. If we take into account that the loaches themselves are valuable objects of fishing, then the benefits from them outweigh the possible minor harm.

The second undoubted species of loaches that lives within the Soviet Union is kunja(Salvelinus leucomaenis) (not to be confused with brown trout!). This species differs from the Arctic char in a smaller number of gill rakers (16-18, in small specimens - 12). The kunja has a different color: there are no red and dark spots, instead of them large light spots are scattered over the body. The kunja lives in the Pacific Ocean from Penzhina, the Commander Islands and Kamchatka to Japan. There is also on the Kuril and Shantar Islands, along the entire Okhotsk coast and in the Amur. Kunja is an anadromous charr, living forms have not been found anywhere except for Lake Shikotsu on the island of Hokkaido. This rather large (up to 76 cm long) fish leads a predatory lifestyle, feeding both in the sea and in fresh waters. Its main food is small fish (gerbil, smelt, stickleback, minnow, goby), as well as freshwater shrimp and large larvae of aquatic insects. Spawning is mainly in August - September.

Another species of loaches lives in the rivers of North America - American char, or American char(Salvelinus fontinalis), - assigned to a special subgenus (Baione). In its way of life, this char is extremely similar to the Arctic char. It also forms anadromous, lacustrine-river, lacustrine, and stream forms. It differs somewhat in the nature of its coloration: it has light, irregularly shaped, worm-like spots on its back and sides, which are absent in other representatives of this genus. Otherwise, its coloration resembles that of the Arctic charr (S. alpinus). In the sea, the coloration is silvery; in the river, the back darkens from faint to dark greenish-blue, and in some cases becomes black; during spawning, the spots become intensely orange, the fins turn red, and their outer rays remain white. The color of the brook charr is very bright, with bright orange spots and belly and dark transverse stripes on the sides of the body. American charr has long been an object of acclimatization and artificial breeding in America itself, and it is also bred in Europe.

North American close to loaches kristivomer(Cristivomer namaycush) is so distinctive that it is classified as a separate genus by the structure of the vomer and the number of pyloric appendages. It is colored similarly to American char, but lives only in lakes. Americans incorrectly call it lake trout (lake trout). Experiments on artificial crossing have shown that hybrids of American char (S. fontinalis) with Arctic char (S. alpinus) are easy to obtain, but difficult to obtain with a kristivomer, and only the first generation is fertile. Apparently, there are two morphologically different forms of the kristivomer: living near the surface and living at depth. Spawning occurs in the coastal rocky part of the lakes in autumn. Christivomeres are slow growing and late maturing fish. Large, up to 1 m, North American cristivomeres, living up to 22-23 years, are a very valuable commercial object in the USA and Canada.

Taimen(Hucho) are similar to loaches, but their teeth on the vomer bone form a continuous arcuate band with palatine teeth. The head of the taimen is flattened laterally and somewhat resembles a pike, and there are o-shaped black spots on the body, like some salmon. Taimen are inhabitants of the rivers of Eurasia. 4 species are known.

Danube taimen(Hucho hucho) lives in the Danube and Prut basins from the headwaters to the mouth, but never goes out to sea. This rather rare fish can reach a considerable size (usually 2-3, rarely 10-12 kg, a case of catching a specimen of 52 kg is described in the literature). Danube taimen (also called Danube salmon) is a predator that feeds on small fish. Spawns in spring, usually in April, on pebbly soils.

common taimen(Hucho taimen) differs from the Danubian in a smaller number (11-12) of gill rakers. Small specimens have 8-10 dark transverse stripes on the sides of the body; small o-shaped and semilunar dark spots are common. During spawning, the body is copper-red. Taimen can reach 1.5 m and more than 60 kg of weight. The taimen is very widespread - it can be caught in all Siberian rivers, up to the Indigirka. It exists both in the Amur basin and in large lakes (Norilsk, Lake Zaisan, Teletskoye and Baikal). In Europe, cases of catching taimen were noted for Kama, Vyatka, from where it reached the middle Volga, and also Pechora. Taimen never goes to sea, prefers fast, mountain and taiga rivers and clear cold-water lakes. Spawns in May in small channels. This large and beautiful fish is a desirable prey for the amateur fisherman. The only migratory species in the genus Taimen - Sakhalin taimen, or lentil(Hucho regryi). Lentil differs from ordinary taimen in larger scales. It lives in the Sea of ​​Japan, from where in spring and summer it enters the rivers of Hokkaido, Sakhalin and our Primorye to spawn. In the south, in the Yalu (Korea), replaced by a close residential species - Korean taimen(Huchō ischikawai). Sakhalin taimen reaches more than 1 m in length and 25-30 kg of weight. Its meat is very tasty and fatty. In the sea, the color of the lentil is silvery, in the river the body acquires a reddish tint, like that of the common taimen, and 5-8 light crimson transverse stripes form on the sides. Like other taimen, lentil feeds mainly on small fish.

Lenok(Brachymystax lenok) - the only species of its genus, it resembles whitefish more than other salmonids. His mouth is relatively small, like whitefishes. The eggs are also quite small. Lenok grows relatively slowly and rarely reaches 8 kg of weight, usually it is much less (2-3 kg in the 12th year of life). The color of the lenok is dark brown or blackish, with a golden tint. The sides, dorsal and caudal fins are covered with small rounded dark spots; during the spawning period, large copper-red spots appear on the sides. Lenok does not go to sea. It lives in the Siberian rivers from the Ob to the Kolyma, it also exists in the Far East, in the Amur and all the rivers flowing into the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Sea of ​​Japan, goes south to Korea. Like taimen, lenok is a voracious predator. Large lenoks, in addition to small fish, can eat frogs and mice swimming across rivers. He also eats large benthic invertebrates - larvae of stoneflies, caddisflies and mayflies. Like common taimen, lenok is an object of recreational fishing.

White salmon, or nelma(Stenodus), belong to the whitefish subfamily. In this genus, one widespread species is nelma(Stenodus leucichthys nelma). Like whitefish, nelma has rather large, silvery scales and small caviar; nuptial attire is weakly expressed. But the mouth of the nelma is large, like that of salmon, and the features of the skull distinguish it from both salmon and whitefish.

Nelma is a large fish, up to 130 cm in length and 30-35 kg of weight. Its fatty meat is very tasty. This species lives in the northern rivers - from the Ponoi and Onega in the west to the Yukon and Mackenzie rivers in the east. The area of ​​the nelma resembles in this respect the area of ​​the Arctic char, but, unlike the char, which easily forms lacustrine forms, the nelma prefers rivers to lakes. Only in a few lakes is nelma found in significant quantities (Lake Zaisan, Norilsk, Kubenskoye Lake in the Northern Dvina basin). This fish does not like salt water and, going out to sea, sticks to the desalinated estuarine spaces of the Arctic Ocean and the northeastern part of the Bering Sea. A significant part of our herd of nelma spends its whole life in the great Siberian rivers, making migrations from the mouth to the upper reaches. The timing of the course of nelma in different rivers varies greatly: usually it starts to go up even under the ice and goes either with greater or lesser intensity throughout the summer. It has been noted that by the end of the run there are fish with immature gonads, which obviously do not have time to spawn this year (spawning in late September - October). These fish must spend a year in the river before spawning; they correspond to the winter form of salmon. Nelma is a relatively slow growing fish. In the Yenisei, it reaches maturity at the 8-10th year, in Pechora - at the 13th, in Kolyma - at the 11-14th, in the Ob - at the 14-18th year (males mature somewhat earlier). Therefore, nelma populations are easily overfished. In a number of rivers (Lena, Anadyr), natural hybrids of nelma with different types of whitefish were found.

Very close to nelma form - whitefish(Stenodus leucichthys) - lives in the Caspian Sea basin. Apparently, the whitefish came to the Caspian from the north. There was no direct communication between the Caspian and the Arctic Ocean, but the upper reaches of the Volga and its tributaries are very close to the upper reaches of the rivers flowing into the Arctic basin. At the end of the Ice Age, huge lakes formed on the watersheds, leaving behind thick layers of characteristic bottom sediments - ribbon clays. The water from them flowed north and south; in this way, the now interrupted and restored only by human hands (Volga-Baltic and White Sea-Baltic canals) connection between the basins of the two seas arose. In this way, the nelma, which became the whitefish, and a number of cold-water crustaceans - mysid, gammarid, kalyanid, got into the Caspian Sea. The white fish fattened up in the Caspian Sea, making regular migrations. In winter, it concentrated in the northern part, in summer it went to the southern, deeper and less warming at depth. For spawning, it entered mainly the Volga, rarely the Urals and single individuals in the Terek. The main passage to the Volga began in September, and its height was in the middle of winter (December, January and February). Previously, the white fish came along the Volga to Uglich, along the Oka to Ryazan and Kaluga, but the main spawning grounds were along the river. Ufa. The whitefish grows faster than nelma, matures in the 6-7th year and manages to spawn no more than twice in a lifetime. Therefore, its size is smaller than nelma (up to 110 barely and 20 kg of weight, on average, the weight of females is 8.6 kg, males - 6 kg). White salmon, like nelma, is a predator and intensively feeds on small fish in the sea: herring, roach juveniles, atherine and gobies. In the river, she does not eat anything, and the fat content in her meat is reduced from 21 to 2%. Like the nelma, the whitefish has spring and winter forms. The white salmon population, which has greatly thinned after the construction of dams on the Volga, is maintained only at the expense of insignificant spawning areas of the river. Ural, since single individuals that have passed all the obstacles to the river. Ufa, they cannot play a significant role in replenishing the herd.

Sigi(genus Coregonus) among the entire salmon family, apparently the most numerous, most variable and most unstudied genus. It includes fish with a somewhat laterally compressed body and a relatively small mouth. Often the upper jaw is shorter than the lower, in such cases the mouth looks up. Whitefish with such an upper mouth feed on plankton, mainly small crustaceans that live in the water column. Sometimes the jaws are the same length - such a mouth is called terminal, as it is located at the end of the snout. The head of a whitefish with a terminal mouth resembles the head of a herring, therefore they are often popularly called herrings (Pereslavskaya herring, Obskaya herring, Sosvinskaya herring, etc.), but the presence of an adipose fin immediately gives them salmon. In whitefish, which feed on organisms that live on the bottom, the mouth is lower - the upper jaw is much longer than the lower one. The coloration of whitefish is more modest than that of salmon: the body is covered with large silvery scales without bright colored spots. The wedding attire is also modest; only in males, very rarely in females, some whitefish develop comb-like and tuberculate outgrowths on the scales and head. Whitefish eggs are small, yellow, and the female does not burrow into the ground.

Despite the fact that the fatty and tasty meat of whitefish has long been highly valued by humans and they are the objects of intensive fishing, it is still unclear how many species and forms of whitefish live in our lakes and rivers. The reason lies in their extraordinary variability even for the salmon family. Practically, the whitefish of any lake can be distinguished into a special form according to the structural features, growth and nutrition rates, and other aspects of the lifestyle. So, in 1932, 20 forms were distinguished in one type of whitefish; in 1948, there were already 57 of these forms, and only 43 forms were indicated for the lakes of Karelia! American ichthyologists also described many species of whitefish from the waters of the United States and Canada. Fortunately, this period is already ending. So, whitefish from the lakes of Switzerland, where there were more than a dozen of them, were brought together into one species, the same reassessment is underway both here and in America.

The smallest whitefish living in the lakes of the Baltic Sea basin, in Karelia and in the Murmansk region, in the lakes of the upper reaches of the Volga, west to Denmark, belong to the species European vendace(Coregonus albula). Vendace sizes are no more than 30-40 hedgehogs, weight, as an exception, up to 1200 g, usually much less. Some forms of vendace mature, reaching barely 8 cm in length and 4-4.5 g in weight. This is a slender, mobile fish with a green back and silvery sides and belly. In some lakes there are golden-pink vendace. The mouth of the vendace is upper, and it feeds mainly on plankton. Together with smelt and bleak, vendace consumes a significant part of the plankton of lakes. Although it is mainly a lake species, a significant population of vendace lives in the Gulf of Finland, from where it enters the Neva for spawning and spawns in Lake Ladoga. The whole variety of forms of European vendace can be divided into three large groups:

A typical, medium-sized form, maturing in mass in the 2nd year of life (males sometimes in the 1st, and females in the 3rd). Dimensions about 16 cm and weight 25-50 g (maximum up to 130 g). Vendace rarely lives more than 4-5 years. It spawns in late autumn and early winter, often already under ice, on hard sandy or rocky ground. It is noted that this form prefers lakes with medium depths.

A large form of vendace, maturing in the third year of life, with a size of 17-21 cm and a weight of 50-90 g, is called ripusom, on Lake Onega - kiltsom. Ripus live for at least 6-7 years and reach 200-400 g, extremely rarely 1 kg or more. They inhabit deep cold-water lakes. Ladoga ripus in the spring, when the plankton biomass is low, switches to feeding on small fish (smelt). It can be distinguished from the common vendace that lives with it by the development of reproductive products: the fifteen-gram vendace has already well-developed gonads, while in ripus they are barely noticeable. Onega kilets, reaching 34 cm in length and 460 g in weight (average 100 g), stays at a depth of 15 meters or more and feeds mainly on benthic mysid crustaceans. A similar form has been described from Mecklenburg Lake Lucin, it lives at depths up to 58 m, and if it is pulled to the surface, the swim bladder inflates its belly, like a real deep-sea fish.

Ripus serve as objects of breeding and acclimatization in our country and have been successfully introduced into a number of lakes, for example, in the Ural ones. It is known that the growth rate of ripus depends on nutrition. If the juvenile ripus is fed with chironomids (bloodworms), it reaches 53 g of weight in a year, and with plankton feeding - only 16 g. In three years, the Ladoga ripus, relocated to Lake Shartash, reaches 300 g of weight.

Large (up to 300 g) and fatty vendace from Lake Pereslavl ("Pereslavl herring") was awarded the Tsar's decree in 1675. Concerned about the state of its reserves, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich wrote to the Pereslavl voivode: “And if your oversight, fish catchers will teach you to catch herring with frequent seines, and the great sovereign will instruct us about it knowingly or in sending to our everyday life and at the auction small herrings will appear, and you, but from us the great sovereign to be in disgrace, and the headman and fishermen in the death penalty. Apparently, such drastic measures had an effect.

In small, low-feeding swampy lakes with acidic water (such reservoirs are called dystrophic), vendace degenerates into a small form, ripening in the 2-3rd year, 10-15 g of weight. She lives only 3-4 years.

In the waters of the Arctic Ocean basin, from the White Sea to Alaska, another species lives - Siberian vendace(Coregonus sardinella). It differs from the European one in that its dorsal fin is slightly shifted forward. Unlike the previous species, which prefers lakes, the Siberian vendace is mainly a river fish that migrates up the river. Often it feeds in desalinated estuarine spaces. Nevertheless, it is also found in lakes, for example, in Beloozero, and in the Sheksna and Volga systems there is its special form, indicating the former connections of this lake with the White Sea basin. The Siberian vendace can reach over 40 cm in length and over 500 g in weight. In many Siberian rivers, it is the object of significant fishing, it is often incorrectly called herring. Like the European vendace, the Siberian vendace has large forms similar to ripuses. They feed mainly not on plankton, but on large crustaceans - sea cockroaches, mysids, and often juvenile fish. They catch vendace in the rivers of Siberia, mainly during its spawning season. She goes all summer and spawns before freezing, often spawning ends under the ice. Caviar is laid on the sand at a shallow depth (1-1.5 m) and is not buried by the female. There is an assumption that eggs can freeze into ice without losing viability.

The third type of our whitefish - tugun(Coregonus tugun), incorrectly called on the river. Obi "Sosvinsky herring" differs from vendace in having a terminal mouth with jaws of equal length, a more rounded body in cross section and a broad back. It reaches 20 cm in length and inhabits the rivers of Siberia from the Ob to Khatanga, without going out to sea, and (with rare exceptions) does not live in lakes. Along the Yenisei it reaches the Angara. Tugun is a typical river fish; it feeds on crustaceans and insects that have fallen into the water. He also grabs insects swarming above the surface of the water. Like vendace, it spawns in late autumn. Tugun is characterized by early sexual maturity; in the river Tom, he matures in the 2nd year of life. It is found in commercial quantities in many Siberian rivers.

Mentioned in songs (“omul barrel”) and glorified by gastronomes omul(Coregonus autumnalis) in our view is associated with Baikal. This is not entirely true: only its subspecies lives in Baikal. The omul itself is a migratory fish. It feeds in the coastal parts of the Arctic Ocean and spawns in the rivers from the Velta (following west of the Pechora) to the rivers of Alaska and Northern Canada. Like the tugun, the omul has a terminal mouth, but more (up to 51) gill rakers. This large (up to 64 cm in length and 3 kg of weight) fish is an object of fishing in all Siberian rivers, except for the Ob, which for some reason does not enter, although it exists in the Ob Bay. There are summer (June - July) and autumn course of omul. Fish entering the river mature late and spawn the following year. Fishermen well distinguish between running sea omul and lingering in the river: sea omul is much fatter, its insides are literally filled with fat, and the intestines are completely empty. The omul feeds in the sea on large crustaceans - amphipods, mysids; young gobies, whitefish fry, smelt, polar cod. Once in places with a high concentration of plankton, the omul switches to feeding on planktonic crustaceans. Like other whitefish, it spawns in autumn. It is not uncommon for its natural crosses with other types of whitefish - whitefish and whitefish.

Baikal omul(Coregonus autumnalis migratorius) feeds in the expanses of Lake Baikal, where its food is mainly small crustaceans - epishura. It has been established that the omul feeds on epishura if its concentration is not lower than 30-35 thousand crustaceans in a cubic meter of water. With a lack of basic food, he switches to feeding on pelagic amphipods and juveniles of wonderful Baikal fish - golomyanok. Omul is a large whitefish, reaching over 7 kg of weight. In September, the Baikal omul enters the rivers, preparing for spawning. There are three races of omul: 1) Angara (spawning in the upper Angara, Kicher, Barguzin), the most early and slow growing, maturing at the age of 5-6 years; 2) Selenga (spawning in the Selenga, Bolshaya and other rivers of the eastern coast), fast growing and maturing at 7-8 years; 3) Chivyrkuy (the Bolshoi and Maly Chivyrkuy rivers). This race spawns later than all (since mid-October) and, like the Selenga race, is growing rapidly. The omul finishes spawning already during freezing, when sludge floats along the spawning grounds. After spawning, it rolls down to Baikal, where it hibernates at great (300 m or more) depths. Intensive fishing of this fish has significantly reduced its stocks, so now they resort to artificial breeding to maintain the herd.

Omul inhabiting the river. Penzhina, which flows into the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, stands out in a special form - Penzhinsky omul(Coregonus subautumnalis). Almost nothing is known about its lifestyle, apparently, it is some kind of evasive form of the common cisco.

Peled, or cheese(Coregonus peled), easily distinguished from other whitefishes by the terminal mouth, the upper jaw of which is only slightly longer than the lower, and a large number of gill rakers (49-68). The coloration of the peled is darker than that of other whitefishes; there are small black dots on the head and dorsal fin. Peled is a high-bodied fish, which differs sharply from elongated, running vendace, tugun and omul. Peled sizes - up to 40-55 cm, weight up to 2.5-3 kg, less often 4-5 kg. The peled inhabits the lakes and rivers of the north of Eurasia - from the Mezen in the west to the Kolyma in the east. It does not go out to sea, only occasionally getting caught in the slightly salty water of the Kara Bay. If the omul is a passing whitefish, and the tugun is mostly river, then the peled can be called lake. As a rule, it avoids flowing waters, concentrating in floodplain lakes, oxbow lakes, and channels. Peled also spawns in lakes. These features have made peled a desirable object of acclimatization in shallow lakes for pond fish farming. Recently, peled has been stocked with fish in the lakes of the north-west of our country, in which there were no fish before, except for small non-commercial perch. There are three forms of peled: a relatively fast-growing river form that lives in rivers and floodplain lakes and matures in the 3rd year of life; the usual lacustrine, which does not leave the lakes in which it was born, and the dwarf lacustrine form, with oppressed growth, living in shallow lakes poor in food organisms. The latter rarely reaches 500 g of weight, as a rule, much smaller. Like other whitefish, the peled spawns in autumn, often already under the ice.

In the lower and middle reaches of the Amur, in the Zeya, Ussuri, Lake Khanka, the Amur estuary and the lakes of Sakhalin, it lives Ussuri whitefish(Coregonus ussuriensis). Its mouth, like that of the peled, is terminal, the upper jaw barely protrudes above the lower one, and there are from 25 to 30 gill rakers. The Ussuri whitefish does not avoid salt water. It prefers cold lakes and tributaries. Its length rarely reaches 50 cm. The Ussuri whitefish feeds on small fish and larvae of aquatic insects. In the Amur - one of the important objects of fishing.

Chir, or shokur (Coregonus nasus), feeds mostly on benthic insects and molluscs. His mouth is lower, the upper jaw protrudes forward. The head of a chir is small, with a hooked snout and small eyes; gill rakers 19-25; the color is dark, on the sides of the body on the scales there are silvery-yellow stripes. Chir reaches quite large sizes: individuals up to 16 kg were caught in Kolyma, but usually much less - 2-4 kg. It inhabits the lakes and rivers of the Arctic Ocean basin from Pechora to Cape Shelagsky in America, and is found in the rivers of Canada. It is also found in the Anadyr and Penzhina rivers, which flow into the Bering and Okhotsk Seas. Chir prefers to feed in lakes, but spawns in rivers, in October - November, from the moment the first ice appears. Chir, as a rule, avoids sea water. In different parts of its range, the chir is subject to significant variability. Like other whitefish, it is hunted in many of our Siberian rivers.

Passing sig(Coregonus lavaretus) is characterized by particularly strong variability. This species breaks up into many forms, similar only in the lower position of the mouth and a larger head than that of the whitefish, with a less humpbacked snout. The number of gill rakers may vary from 15 to 60 and may be smooth or serrated; the body is high or low, elongated. These whitefish can be anadromous, river and lake, large and small, can feed on benthic planktonic organisms and be predators. Not surprisingly, many forms of whitefish have been described, often without sufficient justification. Recently, the opinion has become increasingly widespread that there is one species of C. lavaretus, anadromous, distributed circumpolarly - from the Murmansk coast to Alaska and northern Canada (the American whitefish, apparently identical to this species, was isolated as C. clupeaformis - herring whitefish). Whitefish extremely easily forms residential lacustrine-river and lacustrine forms, the number of which is much greater than the number of anadromous, and they are much more widespread, reaching south to the lakes of Switzerland. Splitting this species, apparently, is impractical, since most of the forms are extremely easy to pass into each other. In general, wherever the whitefish lives, it breaks up into two forms, often living together. This is a sparsely rakered form (up to 30 gill rakers), feeding on benthos and small fish, and a multi-rakered form (more than 30 gill rakers), consuming mainly plankton. These two forms are found here in the lakes of the Kola Peninsula, in Finland, Scandinavia and Switzerland. Each of them originates from the corresponding many- and few-stamen forms of the anadromous whitefish. The many-stamen and few-stamen forms, in all probability, cannot pass into each other. This is evidenced by the experience carried out by our fish farmers, who moved from Lake Peipus to Lake Sevan a multi-stamen anadromous whitefish and a few stamen whitefish-ludogu. In the new location, the number of gill rakers in the first form decreased from 39 to 36, while in the second form it increased from 23-24 to 25-26. This is explained by the fact that forms that previously fed on different foods began to consume the same object in Sevan - amphipods; nevertheless, a whitefish with few rakers did not become multiraker, and vice versa.

Numerous forms of resident freshwater whitefish in Europe are descended from anadromous whitefish feeding in the Baltic and North Seas. The small stamen form goes to the Neva, Daugava, Neman, Vistula, as well as the rivers of Denmark, Sweden and Finland. A similar way of life is led by a multi-stamen form (Sig Pallas). At present, the number of anadromous whitefishes is negligible, and, unlike the lake ones, they have no commercial value. A number of forms are described for the Ladoga and Onega lakes. Particularly curious sig-valamka, or ridge (pit) whitefish. It lives in Lake Ladoga at depths of more than 50 m, so that when it is pulled to the surface, its stomach swells. The same deep water forms are known from the deep lakes of Switzerland.

Whitefish from the lakes of our North-West were repeatedly transported at the stage of caviar or fry to other water bodies (Lake Sevan, Turgoyak, Sinara, etc.). In a number of cases, transplantations were very successful. Chudsky whitefish successfully transported to Japan.

In the basin of the Arctic Ocean, starting from Murmansk and the White Sea, forms of a special subspecies of anadromous whitefish are common. This whitefish(Coregonus lavaretus pidschian). Pyzhyan belongs to few stamen whitefishes and differs from the typical form by a higher caudal peduncle. The rivers and lakes of the Kola Peninsula are inhabited by a multi-stamen typical whitefish and a few stamens (less than 30 stamens) pizhyan. "Marine", i.e., anadromous, pyzhyan lives only in the Barents and White Seas. Further to the east, in the Kara, Ob, rivers of Siberia from the Yenisei to the Lena, in the Kolyma and Anadyr, various semi-anadromous whitefish live, which do not enter the ocean. All of them are derivatives of the passing pyzhyan that once existed there.

Pyzhyanovidnye whitefish live in lakes. Special forms are described for Lake Teletskoye in the Ob and Baikal basins. Two forms live in Baikal. One of them, the Baikal whitefish (C. lavaretus baicalensis), which spawns in the lake, occupies a middle position between the forms known to us in terms of the number of stamens (25-33), so it is not clear which form it belongs to. The second Baikal form is the Barguzin whitefish, which enters the river for spawning. Barguzin, in terms of the number of gill rakers, approaches the pyzhyan. Baikal whitefish are characterized by rapid growth.

Pyzhyanovidny whitefish inhabiting the Shilka, Argun, Amur and Ussuri, isolated in a special species - sig-hadars(C. chadary). It differs from the Pyzhyan in the shape of the head and small black spots on the head and back.

Even more stamens than in the multistamen form of the anadromous whitefish (C. lavaretus) are found in whitefish(C. muksun), which has from 44 to 72 stamens. This is a semi-anadromous whitefish, feeding in the desalinated coastal waters of the Arctic Ocean, from where it goes to spawn in the Kara, Ob, Yenisei, Lena and Kolyma, without rising, however, high. Muksun in the sea feeds on amphipods, mysids and sea cockroaches. Occasionally, it reaches more than 13 kg of weight, its usual weight is 1-2 kg. Spawns in October - November before freeze-up, on rifts with flagstone and pebble bottom. Muksun is one of the most important commercial fish in Siberia, its catches are measured in tens of thousands of centners. The lacustrine forms of muksun living in the Norilsk lakes are also described.

Along with some of our whitefish, which have a circumpolar distribution and live, besides our waters, in the waters of Alaska and Northern Canada, North America also has its own specific species belonging to a special subgenus Prosopium. We have one species of representatives of this subgenus - whitefish, or skate(C. cylindraceus). The body of the roll is rounded, in cross section it is rolled, for which it got its name. Juveniles have distinct dark spots on the sides and back. Valek reaches 42 cm in length. We live in the rivers of Siberia, from the right tributaries of the Yenisei to the Kolyma. american valek(C. cylindraceus quadrilateralis), which is distinguished by a smaller number of scales in the lateral line and gill rakers, also lives in our rivers that flow into the Okhotsk (Penzhina, Kukhtui, Okhota) and Bering Seas (Anadyr, rivers of the Koryak land). The American Valek is very widespread - from Alaska to the Great Lakes and New England - distributed on the American continent. The commercial value of the roll is insignificant. American valek during spawning of chum salmon can eat its caviar, as do char, lenok and other freshwater fish.

Animal life: in 6 volumes. - M.: Enlightenment. Edited by professors N.A. Gladkov, A.V. Mikheev. Wikipedia - (Salmo salar) see also SALMON FAMILY (SALMONIDAE) Immature Atlantic salmon in appearance is not much different from Pacific salmon in the same physiological state, however, its anal fin is slightly ... ... Fish of Russia. Directory

Pink salmon- (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) see also SALMON FAMILY (SALMONIDAE) Immature individuals of pink salmon have a low, sloping body with a weakly carved caudal fin, covered with numerous small, easily falling scales. Dorsal and anal ... ... Fish of Russia. Directory

differs in small scales. In the sea, its body is painted in silver color, there are many small dark spots on the caudal fin.

In the river, the color changes: dark spots cover the back, sides and head, by the time of spawning the head and fins become almost black, and the whole body becomes brown, except for the belly, which remains white. The proportions of the body change especially strongly: in males, a huge hump grows on the back, the jaws lengthen and curve, strong teeth grow on them. The once slender and beautiful fish becomes ugly. Pink salmon is a relatively small salmon, it rarely reaches 68 cm in length, but its small size is compensated by its mass character.

It is widely distributed: along the American coast it enters all rivers, starting from the river. Sacramento as far south as Alaska. It also enters the Arctic Ocean, pink salmon has repeatedly been recorded in the Colville and Mackenzie rivers, and along the Asian coast - in Kolyma, Indigirka, Lena and Yana. On the Asian coast of the Pacific Ocean, pink salmon spawns in the rivers flowing into the Bering and Okhotsk Seas; it also exists on the Commander and Kuril Islands, Sakhalin, Hokkaido and the northern part of Hondo Island. To the south, it goes to Peter the Great Bay, however, it is difficult to establish the southern border, since pink salmon was often mixed with salmon. Pink salmon does not rise very high along the rivers. So, it enters the Amur in mass quantities in June and rises to the river. Ussuri.

As a rule, pink salmon spawns in places with a faster current, where the bottom is covered with rather large pebbles. Its caviar is large (5.5-8 mm in diameter), but more pale in color and with a shell that is more durable than that of chum salmon eggs. In 2-3 months after the death of the parents, fry emerge from the eggs, remaining in the mound until spring. In spring, they roll into the sea, reaching 3-3.5 cm in length.

In the sea, pink salmon actively feeds, and chooses more high-calorie food than chum salmon. If the food of chum salmon consists of more than 50% of pteropods and tunicates, then pink salmon prefers small fish, fry (30%) and crustaceans (50%). Therefore, it grows and matures unusually quickly: 18 months after the migration to the sea, it already returns to the rivers to lay eggs and die. True, opinions were expressed that a significant part of pink salmon spawns in the third or fourth year of life. However, this is hardly the case. Sea catches showed that in August only a few individuals remained in the sea, for some reason late in development.

Along with chum salmon, pink salmon is a massive fishery object. For example, in Kamchatka, its catches account for 80% of the total salmon catch.