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22 • April 2016 • COAST • www.coast-magazine.com and fry. Onward, the fish pass Native villages and family fish camps accessi- ble only by plane or boat in the summer and in the winter, by snowmachine and sled. On shore, Alaskan parents and grandparents teach the next genera- tion how to harvest and process the red fish essential to their annual diet. In this way, the salmon runs support the perpetuation of cultures that have de- veloped over thousands of years along these very rivers and streams. By now the salmon are running on empty, having spent most of their en- ergy stores to reach their natal streams. The physical toll of their epic journey is evident in the fish, their heads and jaws now elongated and blushing a deep green. Their skin is now crimson, as scales have been absorbed. Here in gravel streambeds, females select nesting sites with just the right water velocity, depth and gravel size, and the mating ritual begins. Soon millions of sticky fertilized eggs settle into the stream’s gravel bottom to be cooled and oxygenated by clear flowing water. Within a week or two the exhausted adults will die, returning a surge of marine nutrients that feeds eagles and bears and fertilizes the willows, alders, berry bushes and muskeg plants that nourish moose and caribou and the entire ecosystem. And so it goes, until midwinter when eggs hatch and the cycle begins anew. Visitors can witness the amazing spectacle of returning sockeye at public lands throughout Bristol Bay’s water- shed, including Katmai and Lake Clark national parks www.nps.gov/alaska , Togiak and Izembek National Wildlife Refuges www.fws.gov/alaska/nwr/map. htm, and at Wood-Tikchik State Park dnr.alaska.gov/parks/units/wtc. All offer unforgettable opportunities to experience these amazing fish and the landscapes they’ve help shape. David Aplin works for the World Wildlife Fund’s Arctic Program, based in Anchorage. SOCKEYE SALMON:continued from Page 19 Sockeye Salmon Spawn in the Brooks River in Katmai National Park. PETER BARRETT/ ALASKASTOCK 2016 SUMMER PROMOTION CONTACT YOUR ADVENTURE MEDIA REP TODAY! (907)677-2900|advertising@alaskaadventuremedia.com 2015 OFFICIAL GUIDE OF THE BIG WILD LIFE RUNS SATURDAY, AUG. 15 • SUNDAY, AUG. 16 WWW.BIGWILDLIFERUNS.ORG EMMYLOU HARRIS & RODNEY CROWELL =1.68=.=4*;5-.7<87§<=27B>72?.;<. MARCHFOURTH MARCHING BAND 7.@8;5.*7<<><9.,=<=1.,*52/8;72*187.B-;89<0;.*=*6.;2,*7=*A2 -2;=B;2?.;;*6+5.;<6887*52,.,*3>7,8>7=;B;.?2?*5=26.*<=87 NINILCHIK ALASKA, JULY 31 - AUGUST 2, 2015 www.salmonfestalaska.org 9[N\NW]NMKb]QN4JLQNVJT+Jb,XW\N[_J]RXW