Click on this image for underwater views of Kokanee
It is September and locals arrive by the dozens—even hundreds. That is because the Kokanee arrive by the thousands—even tens of thousands. The streams and channels turn red with spawning fish. No September visit to this area is complete without a jaunt to admire our landlocked salmon.
Other years, I concentrated on taking underwater pictures of the Kokanee, such as the picture to the right, which is linked to those images and a discussion. This year I concentrated on pictures of Kokanee aerodynamics (chuckle).
If you wonder about the density of spawning Kokanee in local streams, consider this view.
To ascend a channel, a Kokanee often has to work its way past a weir. Sometimes it just pushes up through the descending water. Sometimes it jumps; that is, it launches itself into the air on a ballistic path that should take it above the weir. This picture shows four Kokanee taking to the air in an effort to climb above a weir. The red splotches in the lower left are Kokanee above the weir swimming vigorously to stay there.
In the above picture, three of the four fish are oriented nicely. The fourth has started to roll. This next picture shows a good aerodynamic orientation for a ballistic fish.
Alas it is not always so. As good as (any) fish is in controlling its orientation when in water, it is clear that a Kokanee (salmon) is rather bad at controlling it in the air. There are three rotations a balistic fish should control: pitch (nose up or down), yaw (swing to left or right), roll (turn on one’s side). The next picture shows ballistic fish, one of which has lost control of yaw. It is travelling sideways.
This picture shows a fish which has lost its control of pitch; its nose is down.
And one where the loss of pitch control resulted in nose up.
Here is a Kokanee with a rather marked problem in controlling yaw.
But, my favourite fish is this one with a severe problem with controlling roll.
Then there is a fish that despite its orientation will probably be dragged back below the weir because its tail is stuck in the water. There are other fish on the lower left that are struggling up through the water.
Very cool pictures to send to the folks back east. Now they’ll know what they are missing.
Diane, I have lived in Ontario. In the fall, the leaves on their trees turn red (ours turn yellow and orange). It is lovely, but then streams that turn red with Kokanee—now that is spectacular.
Amazing pictures Alistair, thanks for sharing.
Wow! Great photos of an amazing phenomenon. Thanks for sharing them!
Tremendous photos! Thanks for sharing them. May we send them to far off grandchildren?
Muriel, of course you can. Just send them the link to the posting,
http://blog.kootenay-lake.ca/?p=2857
I hope that those grandchildren realize that my treatment was whimsical. For all their control in water, Kokanee are hardly equipped to control orientation in the air and so my pretence that they are merely bad at doing it was jocular.
Marvelous pictures Alistair, both present and past !! I have only had the pleasure of watching the Kokanee spawn a few times here in the East Kootenay. By that I mean taking a few hours at a time and studying the phenomena up close and thorough. Your pictures take me back there !!
I noticed that you did refer to the swimmers as having a difficult and vigorous swim to stay stationary in fast moving water or climbing a weir or falls of water. After watching these feats myself I soon surmised that these actions were merely repeated again and again by the same individual as many times as one cared to count them. I did verify it the next day when I spent 3 hours intently watching an entire small creek full swim and fly up a 28″ waterfall from a culvert while many simply swam about for a few moments and then headed back over the falls to churn about with others in the large whirling pool at the base of the falls.
To say the least, I immediately abandoned the notion I’m sure we have all been taught, that Salmon as a species are valiant and persevering spawnners overcoming great obstacles. They are merely “Masters” of the domain 🙂
thanks again for your wonderful photographs,
Sincerely,
Bill
Bill, I agree. To say that the Kokanee are valiant—or whatever human quality picked—is merely schlock offered by hack writers to tourists and school children who thrive on such silliness. The Kokanee are merely doing their thing. And yes, often there will be multiple tries before overcoming an obstacle. We are impressed by the persistence, but what else are they going to do? It is like saying a (human) baby is being valiant for going through the trauma of being born—actually, it has no choice—no choice means no decision: no valiance.
Touchee with the attributions of valiance, bravery et al. That it’s driven not by choice is at least equally
astonishing. I wonder if that is a/ the fundamental difference between the human and the animal. P
Do you hold the copyright on these images. You should be charging folks who want to download these outstanding photos. Google ” images ” and you’ll see how most photographers are charging for downloads. Cheers.
Claire, they are my pictures, so yes, my copyright. As to charging? For what? Looking at my blog?
I assume that those other photographers are selling the reproduction rights for their images to be used in other publications. If someone wants to use one of my images, that person is welcome to write me with a request. And sometimes I do get such a request.