When we think of salmon, we think of canned salmon. At that time, a tin of Sathosa salmon was also a rare commodity. But in Sri Lanka we call salmon for mackerel or sardines.
Salmon is an amazing fish different from both of them. There are salmon species that can grow up to fifty kilos in weight and one and a half meters in length.
This fish species belonging to the Salmonidae family has subspecies like trout, char and grayling. If Trout brings to mind Mr. Sherlock Holmes, you are right.
Salmon has been a popular food for humans and some animals for decades. The Atlantic and Pacific oceans are the main natural habitat of these people.
The age of these people ranges from two to seven years. But it is correct to say that the age is determined by the skill of the hunters and the day they decide to go on their last journey.
What is this last trip? That's what we're going to talk about.
My curiosity about this fish arose because I had the opportunity to live in Norway a few years ago.
Gasoline.. Apart from tourism, Norway's main source of income is salmon. Farming salmon brings more income to this country than catching them from the sea or rivers.
Can you imagine how much income salmon brings to the country? Not million dollars.. billion dollars.
Here's how much salmon earned the Norwegian government in 2019.
$8,453,550,000.00
(Don't ask questions like why do we import fish even though there are seas all around Sri Lanka, why can't we earn this kind of income from fish.. I don't have the answers)
One of the main hobbies of my Norwegian colleagues is fishing..or billy fishing. Even more popular is salmon fishing. Salmon live in the sea.
Then one can ask if my friends are going to the sea to catch fish. not. They catch fish in the river. Yes, fish in the sea.
That is the most interesting story.
These fish produce eggs or fry only once in a lifetime.
This is a little different from Craig's friendly octopus. These fish live in the ocean, but in order to lay eggs, they have to find the place where they were born.
Let's imagine this for ease of understanding... There is a school of fish in the sea around Negombo. All these people were born in a cold canal road in Norton Bridge. (Norton Bridge is in Kandy Eliya area)
Then when you realize that this fish farm is the right time, you have to find the canal road in Norton Bridge with all of them.
First of all, there is a dialogue and a consensus among this herd of fish who are close to the same age. Sometimes it may not be a verbally communicated agreement.
First you have to go to Trincomalee and find the mouth of Mahaweli river.
After that, you have to swim up along the Mahaweli River to the place where these fish were born on the cold canal road in Norton Bridge.
Almost every salmon must go this way.
Norway.. Sweden.. Denmark.. British Scotland.. Ireland.. Canada.. United States.. The motherland of these salmon fish is located in the areas of Alaska.
This journey can take anywhere from two to three weeks to eight months. All these fish know that this is the last journey. This journey is full of hunters such as man, bears, beavers, ducks, hawks, etc. It is a battle between life and death.
Not only that, due to the development work of the people, some canal roads have become silted.
The biggest focus is canal dams.
Just think, what will happen if you come across Victoria Dam on the way from Negombo to Nortonbridge?
Western nations did not have that much knowledge about the journey of these people until 1960s.
Big dams were built across every river for development. But fortunately, after studying the lifestyle of all the fishes, these people decide that every place where a dam is built, an artificial canal should be built to go up from the lower river.
This is called Step Stream. We are talking about projects twenty or thirty times bigger than the Victoria Dam.
The salmon that stop in this way will not go back to the ocean. On the one hand, this is their life cycle. On the other hand, there is no strength left to swim back.
The only thing that happens there is trying to get back across the dam until you die of exhaustion. I just remember the grandparents who used to go to worship Siripada.
I thought that this is how they leave the door of the house and leave for Hime. Let's imagine that a herd of a hundred fish left the ocean...from there, forty or fifty of them all escape from the hunters and reach their destination.
These people help each other.. knowing that some fish will deliberately take the lead and get killed. But what I understood is that the fish that is being killed has the knowledge to pave the way for others coming from behind in this way.
