Salmon: A Link in the Food Chain

Where do all wild salmon start their lives?

• oceans

• hatcheries

• rivers or streams

• ponds or lakes

If an eagle catches a salmon that has absorbed pollution, what will happen?

• The eagle will become sick and possibly die if it eats the poisoned salmon.

• The eagle will drop the salmon and not eat it.

• The eagle will eat the salmon and nothing bad will happen.

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How are smolts and fry different?

• Fry are very small and smolts are bigger.

• Smolts eat insects and fry eat plankton.

• Smolts move to the estuary, fry live in rivers.

• All of the above are true.

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What would happen if a salmon returned to its stream and the stream was blocked by a dam?

• The salmon wouldn't find their birth stream to lay eggs and then they would die of exhaustion without laying eggs.

• The salmon would find another stream to lay its eggs in.

• The salmon would turn around and swim back to the ocean.

• The salmon would lay eggs in the ocean instead.

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What happens to adult salmon after they lay eggs or fertilize them?

• They die and become nutrients for other wildlife in the food chain.

• They have a big meal.

• They stay to raise their babies.

• They go back to the ocean.

What is an estuary?

• a polluted area of water

• a calm place in the ocean where many animals live

• a place where river water mixes with ocean water

• baby salmon with an egg sac

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What does polluted water lack that salmon need?

• dirt

• warmth

• eggs

• oxygen

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How can you tell salmon are strong fish?

• They fight each other to get to the spawning grounds.

• They have to fight the plankton they need to eat.

• They have to fight bears to survive.

• They swim thousands of miles against strong currents to reach their spawning grounds.

After the eggs hatch, the tiny alevins have ______ attached to them.

• their mother

• a food sac

• plankton

• large teeth

What is brackish water?

• muddy water

• fresh and salt water mixed together

• cold water

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