Biologist, TV Host Jeff Corwin Talks Alaska Salmon On USFWS Podcast

Jeff Corwin, the fish and wildlife biologist who has also become a successful TV host of nature-themed content, recently appeared with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Fish of the Week podcast. Here’s what Corwin had to say about Alaska salmon in his appearance, which you can listen to here:

Out of all the fish to talk about, why Pacific salmon?

Salmon are so amazing. Rarely in life do you get to really witness something that’s the ultimate nature spectacle. Sitting in a Range Rover and watching a million wildebeest coming across the African plains and bringing in thousands of hyenas and lions and tens of thousands of antelope — that incredible awe-inspiring spectacle is almost as interesting as the salmon that you find in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

If you walk up a vibrant rivulet or stream in Alaska, you’ll see the branches bowing over with salmon berries and blueberries. Kodiak bears. Bald eagles. When you add on to that recreation, the commercial importance of salmon, the critical contribution salmon make to Alaska Native communities culturally…Alaska is Alaska because of salmon.

It’s also something that anyone can witness. You can get off a cruise ship in Juneau, walk 1,000 feet up a hill and see three species of salmon coming into a river surrounded by an urban environment. It’s just incredible to me. I’ve been walking up little trails not far from a neighborhood, or going for a jog not far from a place like Anchorage, and seen a little stream choked with big salmon and wondered, “how is this anvil size fish snaking its way up this river?”

If you walk up a vibrant rivulet or stream in Alaska, you’ll see the branches bowing over with salmon berries and blueberries. Kodiak bears. Bald eagles. When you add on to that recreation, the commercial importance of salmon, the critical contribution salmon make to Alaska Native communities culturally…Alaska is Alaska because of salmon.

What was it like the first time you personally experienced a salmon run?

I can remember the first time I encountered wild salmon. It was in Geographic Harbor, Alaska for my first television series — Disney Channel’s Going Wild. It was my first time in Alaska. I think I was 27 years old. We went there to film bears. This was long before I had established a career as a biologist.

I believe they were Sockeye Salmon. I just remember how beautiful it was. And I thought, “man, I’ll never get to experience this again like this.” Well, I’ve had a chance to revisit that story even in bigger and better ways. Compare that to the East Coast where we have only one native salmon species [learn more about Atlantic Salmonhere]. I’ve never seen a wild one, because they’re so rare. But I have a passion for trout and native trout. And I’ve discovered that we actually have a very vibrant population at eastern Brook Trout where I live, which most people would never even know.

The rest of the conversation was really good and worth a listen or a read on the USFWS Medium page.