Stranded: A salmon can be seen trying to swim up-road as a car passes along the flooded roadSalmon usually travel upstream, but recent floods led to an astonishing sight where a handful of fish were forced to swim up-street.
Heavy rains in Mason County, Washington caused water levels to rise by around two inches across Oregon.
When that happens the salmon go wherever the rivers are flowing, according to professional fisherman Conway Bowman, host of 'Fly Fishing The World,' a fishing show on The Sportsman Channel in the U.S.
'This can happen when high water correlates with the spawning season, Mr Bowman told The Huffington Post.
Washed up: Several salmon were thrust onto the road due to water levels rising following heavy rainSkokomish Valley Road, pictured here, was flooded during the storm yesterday and saw several intrepid salmon frantically battling the water in an attempt to swim across the road near Shelton in the southern Puget Sound area of Washington.
Salmon are fish that have a particularly interesting life.
The reason they are so dedicated to swimming upstream is because they need to return to the place they were born in order to breed.
They start out in life as small eggs in a stream bed and once hatched begin a journey passing through different waters downstream towards the salty waters of the ocean.
Once they have fully matured, they start to will swim back to their original stream, which they turn into a spawning ground.
This can sometimes mean that they are faced with swimming up rugged rivers with miles of rapids and even waterfalls to leap across.
Once they arrive, they re-adapt to the fresh water and lay their eggs.
They usually die within a week of spawning and fertilizing the stream in order to create a nutrient-rich environment for the new infant salmon that are about to hatch.
From there, the life cycle of the salmon continues.
source: dailymail
Posts
