At this point in my concentration, I’d like to explain the reason I chose to focus on salmon, as opposed to the countless other finfish or shellfish species. Dale Stokes’ 2014 book entitled The Fish in the Forest: Salmon and the Web of Life provides a modern perspective and understanding of the life history of salmon and its role in its various eco-systems. While the book did not emphasis on current conservation measures for salmon, Stokes effectively illustrated through photography and words, how studying salmon is much more than the study of salmon; it is a gateway to understanding all the various habitats and organisms that depend on the annual migration of salmon – from the open ocean to freshwater streams and rivers, from bears and eagles to killer whales. After reading this book, I understandably found that studying salmon conservation for my concentration was a wonderful way to:
1) Specialize in a specific subtopic (salmon conservation) of a topic (fish conservation) in aquatic biology
2) Through the study of salmon, gain a greater understanding of ecology and inter-species subtleties and habitat-species interactions
3) Study the salmon market to see how factors in economics influence salmon farming and positively/negatively affect salmon conservation.
I could have chosen any other family to focus on, but I felt satisfied with salmonids because of its ecological roles and trophic level neutrality (at full maturity, they are neither top-level apex predators nor bottom-level primary producers).
Stokes, Dale. The Fish in the Forest: Salmon and the Web of Life. University of California Press, 2014.
