Learning Real ecology in Hokkaido, Life of Salmon and ecological importance
What is recommendation in Fall of Hokkaido? There are many to talk about in Hokkaido, but I want to talk about salmons there with ecological factors. Salmon is common to eat as everyone knows. In Japan, Hokkaido is the place yo can see salmon’s runs, and many of them are coming up rivers. If you have never seen salmon’s run, you should come to Hokkaido in fall season!
- About Spices and Salmon
- Samon’s Impact on our ecology
- About Salmon fishing in Japan
- Delicious salmon food in Hokkaido
- Learning Salmon ecology Sake’s science center in Makomanai, Hokkaido
About Spices and Salmon
How many kind of salmons do you know? Atlantic or King salmons? You might have seen in store.
Point！↓Chum salmons are so common in Japan, and if we(Japanese) say salmon, this is the one. They usually come up in fall, and a lot of them are fished at ocean.Sockeye salmons are easy to know because they change colour when they start to come up a river. Coho salmons are also known, and they grow faster and are well farmed fish.
Let’s talk about others as well. Atlantic salmons are also farmed, and very tasty as I often east at a restaurant. King salmons are the biggest salmon, and not often see, but you still know that right?
There are other kind of spices in Japan like salmon adapted at specific lakes and became other spices.
One thing that salmons are different from other is they are born in rivers but grow in ocean. They know where they are born and come up the river which is one of the mystery of salmons. They all come up in September to November in Hokkaido, and it is seasonal event here!
Summary of Salmons↓↓
- chum salmon（often eat in Japan）
- sockeye salmon
- koho salmon
- King salmon
- Atlantic salmon
- others（trout）
Salmon park in Hokkaido is famous there! There is classic water wheel to catch salmons which is for protection for egs and ecological factors. You should check out here in fall!
Samon’s Impact on our ecology
As I talked salmon’s runs in fall season, that would have huge ecological impact on everything in nature. They will die after they spawn eggs. However, their body will be important energy source for others.
For example, bears come down to river to catch salmons. Eagles also knows they can have something in the season. Wild animals need to sustain for winter which means they need more store more energy. The salmons are one of factor that turns ecology well.
Young fries and eggs are also good source for others to have. Salmons have huge amount of eggs, but only less than 1% of them will grow and come back to county river after they grew up.
In our society, we build dams and make concrete on to prevent flooding river, but it also damages salmon and other ecosystems as well.
As I mentioned before, they come back to same river, so once they are gone, it takes a long time for recovery of salmons and the particular ecosystem there.
Salmon fishing in Japan
In Japan, we do fishing salmons as tradition, and often we use fishing net which is more than 30% of salmons are caught by that method.
Salmons run a river but they use most energy there, so river salmon is not so tasty as compared to ocean
caution！However, salmon fishing on the river is prohibited to protect eggs and ecology. some place around river mouth are okay to do fishing in Hokkaido.
Salomon fishing is famous in US and Canada, and I learned how to do salmon fishing there!
one advise for salmon fishing！For salmon fishing, I recommend to use direct colored bite or smelled bite. They don’t eat much in river, but they attack something coming to them, so letting them know difference is better to get salmons.
To be careful is salmons have a lot of anisakis in their body. To kill them, freezing more than 48 hours is best method I would say. Anisakis is big as you can see on your eyes, so let’s check them out at store if you have never seen before.
Delicious salmon food in Hokkaido
There are many of local tasty salmon food in Japan You would see baked salmon or salmon sashimi here. In Hokkaido, we eat salmon sashimi and eggs on rice. That is fresh and tasty as you have never eaten before.
北海道の郷土料理では石狩鍋なども有名ですよね。鮭の切り身を入れた味噌ベースのお鍋で食べると体があったまる冬の定番料理です。他にも鮭のちゃんちゃん焼きなども近年では人気な北海道料理の一つなので観光で訪れた際はぜひご賞味ください！
As a local food, Ishikari Nabe is also famous in Hokkaido. The hot soup with salmon would get you hot in winter. Chanchan-yaki is one of other local salmon food you should try.
you can do something else like other fishes
Salmon are so popular to eat. You can eat as Japanese or other countries local food.
Learning Salmon ecology Sake’s science center in Makomanai, Hokkaido
There are some place bout salmons in Hokkaido, Samon park Makomanai is close to Sapporo city. This center is about the river near by and conservation history of salmon and their ecology.
Makomanai park is huge, and at north of the park there is salmon park there. They display world wide salmons, and free entrance fee, so you should go there at least once.
They have feeding event, but you can buy bite at entrance. Then you can feed anytime if you have 100yen.
Salmons are at basement as well, and Biwako-masu and Ito which are displayed is rare salmons in Japan. Also flogs and other water animals are displayed.
The official web site is here!(in English)
You should go because you can learn more about salmons and rare spices of local salmons in Japan,
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