Every year, countless juvenile Pacific salmon leave streams and rivers on their migration to feeding grounds in the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. After periods ranging from a few months to several years, adult salmon enter rivers along the coasts of Asia and North America to spawn and complete their life cycle. Within this general outline, various life history patterns, both among and within species, involve diverse ways of exploiting freshwater, estuarine, and marine habitats. There are seven species of Pacific salmon. Five (coho, chinook chum, pink, and sockeye) occur in both North America and Asia. Their complex life histories and spectacular migrations have long fascinated biologists and amateurs alike. Physiological Ecology of Pacific Salmon provides comprehensive reviews by leading researchers of the physiological adaptations that allow Pacific Salmon to sustain themselves in the diverse environments in which they live. It begins with an analysis of energy expenditure and continues with reviews of locomotion, growth, feeding, and nutrition. Subsequent chapters deal with osmotic adjustments enabling the passage between fresh and salt water, nitrogen excretion and regulation of acid-base balance, circulation and gas transfer, and finally, responses to stress. This thorough and authoritative volume will be a valuable reference for students and researchers of biology and fisheries science as they seek to understand the environmental requirements for the perpetuation of these unique and valuable species.

Pacific salmon are an important biological and economic resource of countries of the North Pacific rim. They are also a unique group of fish possessing unusually complex life histories. There are seven species of Pacific salmon, five occurring on both the North American and Asian continents (sockeye, pink, chum, chinook, and coho) and two (masu and amago) only in Asia. The life cycle of the Pacific salmon begins in the autumn when the adult female deposits eggs that are fertilized in gravel beds in rivers or lakes. The young emerge from the gravel the following spring and will either migrate immediately to salt water or spend one or more years in a river or lake before migrating. Migrations in the ocean are extensive during the feeding and growing phase, covering thousands of kilometres. After one or more years the maturing adults find their way back to their home river, returning to their ancestral breeding grounds to spawn. They die after spawning and the eggs in the gravel signify a new cycle. Upon this theme Pacific salmon have developed many variations, both between as well as within species. Pacific Salmon Life Histories provides detailed descriptions of the different life phases through which each of the seven species passes. Each chapter is written by a scientist who has spent years studying and observing a particular species of salmon. Some of the topics covered are geographic distribution, transplants, freshwater life, ocean life, development, growth, feeding, diet, migration, and spawning behaviour. The text is richly supplemented by numerous maps, illustrations, colour plates, and tables and there is a detailed general index, as well as a useful geographical index.