I’m so excited to share these little guys, especially after teasing at a pair of saltwater fish earrings coming to the shop. I remember seeing these guys in an aquarium for the first time and almost crying my eyes out because of how cool they were lol.
After exerting extreme amounts of energy travelling for hundreds of kilometers up rivers, fighting for nesting grounds, and finally reproducing, these fish die right after spawning. While doing so, they supply the river ecosystem with valuable resources: anadromous fishes are one of the only ways that nutrients can return back inland from the seas where they end up via water flow!
SALMONIDS of ALASKA
The bane of my existence for the entirety of 2020 and part of 2021: the salmon poster. You've seen the separate illustrations, but now, finally, here is the full thing.
This entire project was a journey. I had never illustrated fish before, let alone in this much detail. I have retained an appropriate hatred of scales and fin rays from this project. But also a persistent joy from having created these illustrations, and appreciation for what beautiful animals these salmon are. Putting together the poster, making all elements fit together and - not unimportantly - making the poster fit its allotted space on the wall was an additional endeavour.
It is currently displayed aboard the David B, the vessel of Northwest Navigation who commissioned this piece. If you're interested in having a copy of your own, you can contact them. For now I hope you enjoy reading this (if you open the image in a separate tab, I made it big enough to read) - and mayhaps learn something new about the intriguing world of salmon! I certainly did.
trout and salmon earrings for all of my freshwater fish girlies (gender-neutral) out there!! salmon are anadromous but still lol!! really really loved working on the coho salmons the most.
I’ve got an Etsy shop opening up by the end of this year with lots more fun fishy things to come! be on the look out for some saltwater fish earrings coming soon >:}
Like other salmon, coho salmon females seek mud and silt-free spots of suitably-sized gravel at the bottom of their home streams and dig holes to lay their eggs in, called redds! Females behave very aggressively towards other salmon while digging, and after choosing a male suitor to fertilise their eggs (and, well, letting the male do the fertilisation), females will cover the spot via swimming upstream and digging a wholly new redd, which causes stirred up gravel to float over to the previous eggs and cover them. A female coho salmon can dig up to seven redds!