Blog: Unlocking how juvenile Chinook salmon swim in California rivers
Despite years of study and thousands of research projects, some aspects of the biology of Chinook salmon remain altogether mysterious. One enduring question is how outmigrating salmon smolts behave and swim through our waterways to somehow find their way into the ocean. For example, it has long been noted that salmon ‘shoulder’ (hold on the river’s edge) at certain times along their oceanward journey, and that they tend to school and travel in packs alongside one another. Are they actively swimming through these habitats? Or merely drifting with the currents …?