So why did the fish cross the road?

doc • Dec 4, 2001 10:14 pm
Image

This was taken from <A HREF="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/local/links/salmon_reprint.html">The Seattle Times</A> today.
Scopulus Argentarius • Dec 5, 2001 12:49 am
It was trying to Spawn a new process.... ???
doc • Dec 5, 2001 1:29 am
...probably should have created a mutex first :)
Joe • Dec 5, 2001 3:44 pm
The salmon has to be one of the most determined animals on Earth.

In ditch to the right you can see other fish waiting for the truck to pass before they cross.

I once witnessed a twelve inch rainbow trout swimming up an alpine brook that was maybe six inches wide and an inch deep, at about ten thousand feet in the Sierras. It was the middle of nowhere, little vegation, no other body of water in sight, and here comes this crazy fish. It just went splashing by, most of it's body out of the water, on it's way to who knows where.
dave • Dec 6, 2001 10:30 am
Does anyone else here find that to be the most awful looking fish? Goddamn that thing looks ugly. I'm not sure I'm ever going to eat salmon again... :)
doc • Dec 6, 2001 10:50 am
I never did like salmon. This just gives me one more reason...the fish might be road kill!
Count Zero • Dec 6, 2001 5:38 pm
I would like to know what a creationist would say after seeing something like that.


(well, probably something stupid)
Slight • Dec 6, 2001 5:56 pm
Originally posted by dhamsiac
Goddamn that thing looks ugly.
I grew up in Seattle and you can't really help learning about the salmon in the Northwest. I don't know why but spawning salmon look really ugly. These animals are on their last legs, looking only to procreate. It is amazing the lengths animals, including humans,will go to spawn their offspring. I can't understand why the road cuts across the stream, but I would guess the answer to the question "Why did the fish cross the road?" is to get upstream.

Anyway to answer Dham I think it is ugly, but that is not the salmon you buy at the market. Usually you buy ones that are caught in the ocean, not spawning salmon. I think I have seen salmon that have already done there business floating dead or half dead downstream and they are bright orange or red, kinda freaky.
Joe • Dec 6, 2001 7:23 pm
I think I get it:

If a salmon is eaten before it procreates, it fails in it's mission and the species does not replicate in that instance.

So, to improve the odds they stuff the predators with dead fish.

The salmon that have *already* procreated and are dead turn a bright color, offering themselves to the predators. This keeps the predators away from the still-camo, not-yet-mated salmon, who are then that much more likely to succeed in reproducing.

Once again I am amazed by the efficiency of nature.
fishfool • Jun 26, 2008 3:38 am
why did the fish cross the road?

CAUSE IT'S A FUGLY FISH
bearing little relation to the BUGLY fish for the FUGLY fish is more boasting of a certain indigenous hideousness.

btwi just visited Seattle (learning rhino3d.com) in the autumn... beautiful city. :D -Fishfool @ The Reef Tank


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Sundae • Jun 27, 2008 9:10 am
Y'all so shallow. A bit like the stream.
There's good eating under ugly exteriors.
footfootfoot • Jun 27, 2008 11:18 am
Joe;6290 wrote:
I think I get it:

If a salmon is eaten before it procreates, it fails in it's mission and the species does not replicate in that instance.

So, to improve the odds they stuff the predators with dead fish.

The salmon that have *already* procreated and are dead turn a bright color, offering themselves to the predators. This keeps the predators away from the still-camo, not-yet-mated salmon, who are then that much more likely to succeed in reproducing.

Once again I am amazed by the efficiency of nature.


I've been told that the opposite is true, the predators aren't interested in DEAD meat. Scavengers, yes. That's why you see all the nature videos the bear are catching the still living salmon and no one is really scarfing up the floaters.
xoxoxoBruce • Jun 27, 2008 11:56 am
The birds will eat 'em... dead or alive.
Cloud • Jun 27, 2008 12:10 pm
very cool picture! you can just imagine him thinking ("I think I can. I think I can. I think I can . . . YIKES! CAR COMING! I THINK I CAN!"