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submitted 6 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[-] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 318 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Why?

The goals of the Salmon change when they reach mating age. Now they don't need to survive in the ocean, they need to make sperm/eggs and survive the long trip to their birthplace. This trip is through fresh water lakes and rivers. That is a very different environment from the ocean. They will need to jump/swim up waterfalls. They will need to avoid predators, but very different ones than they faced in the ocean.At the end of their journey they will mate and die.

Because the goals and environmental pressures change so much the Salmon must also change to meet those new challenges. If they didn't they wouldn't be as successful in reaching their final destination and making more Salmon.

How?

Just like humans, hormones trigger biological changes. The change to fresh water also triggers changes and a countdown clock. The changes use a lot of energy, as does their trip and mating. Their body will literally consume itself to make the changes and meet the challenges it needs to so that the salmon make it home to mate.

In case anyone was curious

[-] nick@midwest.social 142 points 6 months ago

If there’s one person on lemmy that I trust for my aquatic animal info, it’s sharkfucker420

[-] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 34 points 6 months ago

I would also trust them with knowledge on marijuana

[-] Kedly@lemm.ee 7 points 6 months ago

They dropped the weed for communism on my end

[-] nightofmichelinstars@sopuli.xyz 72 points 6 months ago

Thank you. My takeaway is that this is salmon puberty. I wonder if they, too, stare at themselves naked in the bathroom mirror and feel weird.

[-] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 34 points 6 months ago

They do. But then, they jump up a waterfall and die :(

[-] danc4498@lemmy.world 20 points 6 months ago

#LifeGoals

[-] Event_Horizon5@lemmy.world 30 points 6 months ago

But why do pacific salmon go through all these changes and die after mating only once, while Atlantic salmon can do the same thing but survive to mate many years in a row?

[-] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 6 months ago

the cruel joke of evolution

[-] Paradachshund@lemmy.today 59 points 6 months ago

His humps, his humps his humps his humps

[-] sir_pronoun@lemmy.world 46 points 6 months ago

His lovely fishy lumps

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.world 9 points 6 months ago

Whatcha gonna do with all that roe? All that roe inside your hole?

[-] wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 55 points 6 months ago

I've seen this happen to human men who got too horny, tbh.

[-] weariedfae@lemmy.world 41 points 6 months ago

Is it all salmon species? I stumble upon dead salmon after spawning all the time during field work and I've never seen one that looks like that. They usually look like the top photo.

[-] squeezeyerbawdy@lemmy.world 55 points 6 months ago

This is just a pink salmon aka a humpy. Other species of salmon get the big overbite - called a kipe and big doglike teeth and usually more red coloration.

[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 30 points 6 months ago

This is a good way to illustrate what "gooning" is.

[-] MeDuViNoX@sh.itjust.works 26 points 6 months ago

Do they taste different?

[-] edwardbear@lemmy.world 54 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Well, I vaguely remember watching a documentary about it. They literally start rotting while being alive. Somehow, I don’t need to be either a nutritionist, nor a doctor to assume that flavour, texture, and safe-to-consume are all gonna be a no-no.

Edit: Found a video about it:

https://piped.video/watch?v=C5AjppfOntc

[-] azi@mander.xyz 7 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Yeah but that's only when they're on their way back to the sea, for most of the salmon run the fish are perfectly edible. For Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest whose territories don't directly border the sea (so mostly Interior and Columbia Plateau nations) the salmon run was traditionally a major source of staple food. The rivers used to run so thick with fish that people up and down the major rivers could gather enough salmon to live off for the next year.

[-] vox@sopuli.xyz 6 points 6 months ago

(yt link: https://youtube.com/watch?v=C5AjppfOntc)

[-] henfredemars@infosec.pub 7 points 6 months ago

Asking the big questions.

[-] IrritableOcelot@beehaw.org 20 points 6 months ago

Photoshopped, unfortunately. They change, but not that much.

[-] OtisRamflow@lemm.ee 41 points 6 months ago

Might be exaggerated, but some get pretty crazy looking.

https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&articles_id=714

[-] steal_your_face@lemmy.ml 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

What’s everyone’s favorite? Mine’s coho.

[-] OtisRamflow@lemm.ee 3 points 6 months ago

Chinook, looks like hot iron.

[-] Kedly@lemm.ee 3 points 6 months ago

Welp, Lemmy's now able to hug a site to death now too! We did it Lemmy!

[-] Syd@lemm.ee 2 points 6 months ago

It's going strong here. Have you been banned from Alaska recently?

[-] Kedly@lemm.ee 2 points 6 months ago

Ah, it works for me now too. I guess it was a short hug of death xD

[-] SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Oh no, they change that much and sometimes even more. The hump is a sexual selection trait - the bigger the hump, the more likely it is that a male will get to mate. This favors genotypes that lead to a big ol' hump. While not all pink salmon get a hump that large, the Barry Whites of the humpy salmon world have a great big shoulder boulder that makes the lady fish swoon.

Here's one of those fishy freaks: https://www.landbigfish.com/articles/default.cfm?ID=352

[-] IrritableOcelot@beehaw.org 5 points 6 months ago

Ahhhh it's a humpy, I stand corrected. Not familiar with them. That's absolutely wild!

[-] SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 6 months ago

They're so weird! Imagine going through your life sleek and swift, just to turn into Quasimodo once you hit puberty. Then you die.

[-] shikitohno@lemm.ee 9 points 6 months ago

Probably not photoshopped, more likely just different species and the one on the bottom has been butterflied and laid with the meat touching the ground so it looks much larger. Neither one has really started to change that much at the point these pictures were taken. Towards the end of the season, at least for west coast salmon, they'll often get a lot leaner and their scales turn a super vivid red. As they lose their fat reserves, the meat also becomes much more delicate.

[-] EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 6 months ago

The second one doesn't seem to be butterflied, as it would be missing a dorsal fin if it was, and the skin color is asymmetrical. They're 2 different species imo, but I'm only familiar with Atlantic salmon so I can't say for sure. Atlantic salmon normally look like the top one and get an upturned hook mouth but don't really change color.

[-] Cruxifux@feddit.nl 19 points 6 months ago

Same

[-] Macaroni_ninja@lemmy.world 15 points 6 months ago

Everything I know about salmons is thanks to The Chemical Brothers

https://youtu.be/dDj7DuHVV9E?si=QapEpbKgj3PkiSlW

[-] JoYo@lemmy.ml 11 points 6 months ago

are they still salmon colored?

[-] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 9 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Salmon 1: "Oh gosh, i'm out of the water. I cannot breathe. If this continues for much longer I will surely perish. What a sad state of affairs."

Salmon 2: "YOU FCKFACE YOU CANNOT KILL ME BY TAKING ME OUT OF WATER I WILL SUCK THE MOISTURE OUT OF THE AIR THEN SPIT BLOOD INTO YOUR SOUL, AUUUGGGHHH! SEX!!! SEEXXX!!! I NEED SEEEEXXXXXXX!!!!"