Nature’s Fish Farm

While walking a local trail and coming across a salmon-spawning stream, I was struck by the incredible scene before me.

I was transfixed by the salmon, as they maneuvered against the current.  I became almost lost in the mesmerizing ripples of the stream’s current.  The salmon blended into the rocks of the streambed, creating a camouflage I’d never noticed before.

I could not help but reflect on the tremendous effort the salmon made as they took this return journey and the important impact spawning salmon have on our eco-system.  Their decaying bodies provide life-sustaining nourishment to myriad bird and other animals and even to the forest itself. The salmon are an integral part of an extensive life cycle, travelling from the streams where they start their lives to the rivers, estuaries and ocean where they mature, only to journey right back to where they started, to begin the cycle anew.

From this captivating scene, I flashed on an ironic thought: we commonly refer to  ocean-based “fish farms.”    But what I was observing is “nature’s fish farm,” one that is the culmination of a centuries-old natural imperative. The annual return of the salmon to spawn gladdens the heart and reminds us that this is a critical process, integral to the health of our environment. It must be appreciated, acknowledged, preserved and sustained.