Atlantic salmon

The Atlantic salmon is a big, strong, silvery fish that lives in the cold northern Atlantic Ocean and in the rivers that flow into it. It is one of the largest fish in the salmon family and can grow up to about a metre long, which is roughly the length of a baseball bat.

Atlantic salmon have one of the most amazing journeys of any animal. They hatch as tiny babies in freshwater rivers, then swim all the way out to the sea to find food and grow big and fat. After a year or two in the ocean, they turn around and travel the long way back to the very same river where they were born to lay their own eggs.

To feed and grow, salmon are hunters. Young ones in the river snap up insects and tiny creatures, and out at sea the grown fish eat smaller fish and other sea animals. They grow much faster in the ocean, where there is far more food to catch.

Something special about Atlantic salmon is that they do not always die after laying their eggs. Many kinds of salmon only get to lay eggs once, but an Atlantic salmon can sometimes rest, swim back to the sea, and make the great journey again another year.

Sadly, there are far fewer Atlantic salmon than there used to be, and experts now list them as “near threatened,” meaning their numbers are falling and they could be in trouble soon. Dams that block rivers, too much fishing, dirty water, and warming seas all make life hard for them. People are helping by removing old dams and cleaning up rivers so the salmon can find their way home.