Rivers: Alaska

Salmon hatch in the clear, cold streams in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, and New England. They spend their adult lives in the ocean and return to the streams where they were born, to lay their own eggs. Salmon are important commercial and sport fish. In Alaska and Canada, salmon are a very important part of the diet of native people and of bears. Salmon runs are in trouble where dams have altered the original stream and river habitat, changing the water temperature and flow. This makes it difficult for the salmon to move up and downstream safely.

credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service