In early spring or summer, the pacific sockeye living in the far distances of the Pacific set out on the journey of a lifetime. They were born six years earlier in the headwaters of North American rivers. Now it is time for them to return, responding to a long-remembered scent. From the coast, the salmon then surge upriver to their exact birthplace, a trek of maybe another 1500 miles (2400km).

The salmon have to negotiate rivers that are either low in water or raging torrents. When waterfalls block the way, the salmon leap them, thrashing their powerful tails until they have climbed the wall of water – assuming they are not caught by the hoards of bears snatching them out of the air. Once they reach their goal, the fish mate, scooping shallow nests in the gravel and laying thousands of eggs. then they die in hosts, their energy spent. But many of their offspring will survive.

Just before they journey downstream to the ocean, some physiological changes occur, and the young salmon are now called smolts. Here an amazing adaptation takes place: the creatures start to adapt from their freshwater homes to the salt water of the ocean. This process will be reversed again when the fish later return to the place of their birth to spawn. After a period of adjustment to salt water at the river’s mouth, they make their way to the sea, where they spend most of their adult lives.

Though it is true that Pacific salmon species all die immediately after the first time they spawn, Atlantic salmon for some reason do not. The Atlantic salmon may go back to sea and return to spawn up to four times. In Job 12:8-9 it tells us to “Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; And the fish of the sea will explain to you. Who among all these does not know That the hand of the Lord has done this?” The salmon’s remarkable achievements and life-style, particularly in its amazing ability to navigate great distances with perfect accuracy against incredible odds, are impossible to explain satisfactorily as a result of purposeless, unguided evolution. Instead, the Pacific salmon can be seen to be a wonderful testimony of creation which clearly points us to the Creator.

Categories: Animals