Description
Sockeye Salmon: Oncorhynchus nerka
These Salmon spawn during the summer in small tributaries of lakes where the young spend one to three years before migrating to the ocean. Here they live up to four years. They return to their home streams upon maturity to spawn and die. They range from the Bering Strait to Sacramento, California, being most abundant in the Pacific Northwest. The salmon were welcomed back by the indigenous peoples every year as a food and a spiritual source. The abundance of salmon was one of the contributing factors making their societies totally non-agrarian with plenty of leisure time during the dark months (Nov.-Mar.) to devote to art and the supernatural.
The salmon at the top is of the Canadian Pacific Northwestern coast part of their habitat. The sockeye below is designed to honor this regal fish and the plentitude in which they were once found.
