This week I was able to get some pictures of kokanee salmon during their annual spawning run up the tributary to a local lake. 

Kokanee (Oncorhynchus nerka) are the landlocked form of sockeye salmon, kind of similar to landlocked atlantic salmon found in many northeastern U.S. lakes.  Native forms of kokanee are found in many lakes that currently have, or have had runs of sockeye salmon from the Pacific Ocean.  It is believed that these native stocks arose from sockeye salmon offspring that stayed in inland lakes after hatching, instead of returning to the ocean. 

But the kokanee that most people are probably familiar with are those that have been stocked in inland lakes by fish and game departments to provide additional fishing opportunities.  This is the case with the fish I was observing this past week. 

One of the coolest things about these fish is that they take on an amazing red color in preparation for spawning, as opposed to the silvery color they possess prior to spawning.  Their color is such that one can walk along the shoreline of a kokanee spawning river and easily see each spawning fish. 

Unlike Atlantic salmon, species of Pacific salmon are semelparous, which means that they spawn once and die.  We observed thousands of kokanee spawning in the stream, as well as a number of dead carcasses of fish that had expended all of their energy spawning, and died.  There were tons of raccoon tracks and bird tracks on the shoreline, and at one point, there was a place along the shore where a mink had apparently pulled a number of kokanee from the river and eaten their heads, which contain the highest energy content in the fish’s body.

Kokanee are a popular sportfish and play a significant role in cycling nutrients in the ecosystems they inhabit.  They consume zooplankton and fish in the lake environment, spawn in the streams and die, where animals and insects consume them, excrete nutrients, many of which return to the aquatic ecosystem, feeding phytoplankton, which feed zooplankton…..and the cycle continues.  And aside from that, they’re fun to fish for and pretty cool to check out during the spawning run!