Salute to Salmon When you read Mark Hume’s story and interview with Nathan Putman earlier this month (see ARNS Reading the Magnetic Salmon Map) this desktop picture available for you to download here shows two Sockeye on their redd in the Adams River, British Columbia ending a 4 year life cycle and one incredible journey. We are pleased to present this picture available for you to download to use as a desktop picture for your computer by right clicking on the photo and saving to your desktop. From all of us at A River Never Sleeps we hope you enjoy our...

Story by Mark Hume New research may have solved the mystery of how salmon migrate across vast stretches of ocean to locate their natal streams. And the findings raise concerns about how hatcheries and the use of coded-wire tags might be adversely affecting the ability of fish to navigate and find their way home. Researchers studying the movement of sockeye salmon from British Columbia’s Fraser River say the fish are imprinted with a magnetic map when they are juveniles. They use that map to read the earth’s geomagnetic field, which guides them back from the North Pacific, to the river mouth. “Our paper clearly shows…very small changes in magnetic strength and intensity correspond to changes we see in the migration routes of the fish,” said Nathan Putman, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Oregon. “To find their way back home across thousands of kilometers of ocean, salmon imprint on the magnetic field that exists where they first enter the sea as juveniles. Upon reaching maturity, they seek the coastal location with the same magnetic field,” he said. Dr. Putman’s team looked at Fraser River sockeye because of an unusual trait they have. With Vancouver Island blocking a direct route to the Fraser River from the Gulf of Alaska, migrating fish must choose whether to return through Queen Charlotte Strait, in the North, or through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, in the South. Scientists and fishermen have long speculated on environmental factors, such as ocean temperatures, that might affect that choice. But Dr. Putman found there is a strong correlation between the route chosen by the fish and the geomagnetic field, which naturally drifts because of the movement of the Earth’s liquid outer core. “We found that the proportion of salmon using each...

Story and photography by First Lieutenant Edwin L. Kennedy, US Army [This article was written by Brigadier General Kennedy, then a First Lieutenant, while assigned to Turkey in 1952-1955. It was discovered in a file folder by his son, also a retired Army officer, who edited the article and added the photographs from scanned 35 mm slides. Brigadier Gen. Kennedy, a WWII, Korean War and Vietnam war veteran, retired from active duty in 1979 and currently resides in Florida. We present his story here because it provides a glimpse not only to fishing in another country, but also to fishing in another time. – The Editors.] Standing knee-deep in the swift, clear water, I paused momentarily before making my first cast. In the instant before the lure sailed out over the stream, thought to myself, “Of all the things I’ve seen and done in Turkey, this trip surely tops the list.” The fact that I was fishing was, in itself, not uncustomary, but trout fishing—and in Turkey—that was something I had never imagined could be done. Everything had happened so quickly that until then I hadn’t stopped to realize that the entire trip had been unusual, even the way in which it had come about. It started one hot day early in June while I was watching the approach of a plane load of VIPs and wishing that it would hurry and land. I wanted to get out of the sun and back to the coolness of my office in town, which in this case was Ankara, Turkey, where I was assigned to the Joint American Military Mission for Aid to Turkey, “Who’s going fishing with me this weekend?” The voice came from behind me, and though it was none of my business, I couldn’t help wondering who planned to go fishing with whom, and where they planned to fish. The mention of...