Great reads for the curious fry in your life:
staff favorites:
An ocean of knowledge
Upstream: Searching for Wild Salmon, from River to Table by Langdon Cook
“Invigorating . . . Mr. Cook is a congenial and intrepid companion, happily hiking into hinterlands and snorkeling in headwaters. Along the way we learn about filleting techniques, native cooking methods and self-pollinating almond trees, and his continual curiosity ensures that the narrative unfurls gradually, like a long spey cast. . . . With a pedigree that includes Mark Kurlansky, John McPhee and Roderick Haig-Brown, Mr. Cook’s style is suitably fluent, an occasional phrase flashing like a flank in the current. . . . For all its rehearsal of the perils and vicissitudes facing Pacific salmon, Upstream remains a celebration.”—The Wall Street Journal
The Behavior and Ecology of Pacific Salmon and Trout by Thomas P Quinn
"A book that I keep close at hand for easy reference. I recommend it to anyone, amateur or professional, who wants to gain a basic understanding of salmon and trout biology. An interesting read that is chock full of original observations by the author."―Peter Moyle, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Fish Biology, University of California, Davis
King of Fish: The Thousand-Year Run of Salmon by David R Montgomery
“King of Fish, Montgomery traces the human impacts on salmon over the last thousand years and examines the implications both for salmon recovery efforts and for the more general problem of human impacts on the natural world. What does it say for the long-term prospects of the world's many endangered species if one of the most prosperous regions of the richest country on earth cannot accommodate its icon species? All too aware of the possible bleak outcome for the salmon, King of Fish concludes with provocative recommendations for reinventing the ways in which we make environmental decisions about land, water, and fish.”
Fishes of the Columbia Basin: A Guide to Their Natural History and Identification by Dennis D. Dauble
For anyone who has a natural curiosity about the abundant variety of fish species in the Columbia Basin, fisheries biologist and author Dennis Dauble answers familiar questions and delves into a variety of factors related to 60-plus species in the second edition of his guidebook, Fishes of the Columbia Basin. If you're on a quest for fishes and the places they live, Fishes of the Columbia Basin is an indispensable guide.
Mountain in the Clouds: A Search for the Wild Salmon by Bruce Brown
It is now more than ten years since Bruce Brown began the Olympic Peninsula wanderings that led him to write this powerful account of how greed, indifference and environmental mismanagement have threatened the survival of the wild Pacific salmon and, as a result, the region’s ecology and its people. Acclaimed by critics who likened it to Coming Into the Country by John McPhee and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Mountain in the Clouds has become a classic of natural history. As the struggle to protect Northwest salmon runs and the urgency of the fight against environmental deterioration escalates, Mountain in the Clouds remains an important and illuminating story, as timely now as when it was first written.
Salmon Without Rivers: A History Of The Pacific Salmon Crisis
by James A. Lichatowich
In Salmon Without Rivers, fisheries biologist Jim Lichatowich offers an eye-opening look at the roots and evolution of the salmon crisis in the Pacific Northwest. He describes the multitude of factors over the past century and a half that have led to the salmon's decline, and examines in depth the abject failure of restoration efforts that have focused almost exclusively on hatcheries to return salmon stocks to healthy levels without addressing the underlying causes of the decline.
Totem Salmon : Life Lessons from Another Species
Part lyrical natural history, part social and philosophical manifesto, Totem Salmon tells the story of a determined band of locals who've worked for over two decades to save one of the last purely native species of salmon in California. The book-call it the zen of salmon restoration-traces the evolution of the Mattole River Valley community in northern California as it learns to undo the results of rapacious logging practices; to invent ways to trap wild salmon for propagation; and to forge alliances between people who sometimes agree on only one thing-that there is nothing on earth like a Mattole king salmon.
Streaming fish features
The Salmon Forest
Wild Reverence: The Wild Steelhead’s Last Stand
Undamming the Elwha | KCTS 9 - Public Television
Staff favorites
The Super Salmon: A Real Trip
Wild Kratts: Hero’s Journey
…and beyond!
Staff picks for interactive learning tools
University of Idaho: Salmon Sim
The Salmon Sim project is a developed simulation which employs active learning through exploration and immersive experience to better understand the lifecycle, behavior, and habitat of the Alaska sockeye salmon. The currently phase of development has placed emphasis on spawning migration portion of their lifecycle.
Visit the University of Idaho Virtual Technology and Design website to learn more and download the simulation program here: Salmon Sim
Virtual Tour: FishViews Stillaguamish River
“It’s like a Google Street View for the Stillaguamish River”
A collaboration between the Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians and Stillaguamish Watershed Council offers a self-guided journey of 82 stream miles including beautiful surface panoramas and underwater views!
Click here for the tour!
Salmon Run
“Enjoy a fast-paced racing game for everyone! Rapids, waterfalls, bears, & eagles all await the salmon on their quest upriver to spawn”