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There are only a few places on the planet where salmon have to cross a road during their spawning season. One such spawning route is in the river valley of the tiny town of Skokomish.
This is in Mason County, Washington, USA, where the Skokomish Indian tribe lives, with the river of the same name.
Right here on the outskirts of the settlement in a lowland, there is a section of road 20-25 meters long, which in the autumn or spring rainy season floods by 3-5 centimeters, in some places by ten if the rains were heavy. That's where road signs have to be put up every time during such a season.
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The section of the road is short, but the number of salmon per square meter of road is amazing. Screenshot: Avto24
Translated into Ukrainian, their meaning sounds something like this: “Salmon crossing ahead”, “Salmon crossing”, “Caution: salmon crossing the road”, “Salmon crossing”, “Drive slowly and carefully, fish crossing the road”. There is no fixed name, it can change, but the meaning is clear to all drivers.
Here, they made it a rule to drive no more than 25 miles, or about 40 km on the approach, and very slowly, almost at walking speed, along the flooded section of the road. It is in this lowland that salmon always use the flooded road to migrate to the other side - they go upstream.
The signs may be different, the text may differ, but the meaning is the same for all of them – a fish is crossing the road. Collage: Avto24
Despite the large scale of salmon migration, fish practically do not get hit by cars. It seems that at the right moment, when a car is quietly crossing this area, the fish seem to pause, do not jump under the wheels, wait, and when the threat passes, continue on their way.
Drivers also behave carefully here, even maneuvering to avoid running over these seasonal guests. Drivers here should be given their due – they treat “pedestrians” with respect and give them the right of way.
Due to the low water level, the fish has some difficulty crossing the local asphalt two-lane road and disappears into a flooded lowland overgrown with cattails. There, it lays its eggs.
Despite the massive approach of the shoals to the settlement, none of the drivers even mentally tries to grab two or three fish by the gills to prepare a delicious dinner of fried salmon or fish pie. And this is despite the fact that the fish weigh one and a half kilograms, or even two or three kilograms each. Local residents with nets, baskets, and nets are also not visible there - fishing during spawning is prohibited.
Although salmon dodge car wheels in the fall and spring when they go to spawn, they don't return and die after spawning. However, intuition still leads here. The spawners have to travel hundreds of miles along the coast and then up the river to this place, where they have their last refuge behind the road of a once-flooded river.
For some reason, the salmon's instinct doesn't tell them that there are years when, due to the heat and drying up of this floodplain, not only they but also their fry die here - the place behind the highway is too deceptive.
