for everyone wondering what’s happening, the salmon is still alive but close to dying. salmons start dying after they mate, and they stop eating too. they start rotting while they are still alive. think something similar to migrating necrosis. the fish then keeps living and swimming around as normal, even though its body is wasting away. eventually the body is too far gone and the fish, while still alive, can no longer function and is subject to the environment. that is what happened to this fish. as for the eye, either a bird got it, or it rotted away. this because the eye is very soft, and softer tissues tends to go first.
so basically they just get old quick & begin deteriorating rapidly. there is something about being trapped in a geriatric state during a situation that calls for action
@@christianbrobst3486 I did. It also doesn't make any logical sense to think that. Random pieces of information that you retain aren't learned in a universal linear pattern.
In Ireland we call these Kelts or Cealtí. Male Salmon, Steelhead or Sea Trout who've spawned and die from exhaustion. A crow, magpie or raven probably plucked his eyes out
That's not necessarily the correct definition of a kelt. Especially if you are talking about Atlantic Salmon. Many kelts return to sea and they aren't all male. In fact it's very rare to have a male kelt that returns to sea. Most kelts that return to sea are female.
Every time I see a salmon like this I think of a poem. I can’t remember where it is or what it even says, but it still gets me. Not all mighty creatures have to be lions. Some are little fish who persist after death
Mother nature, never ceases to amaze me. Especially salmon, they are born in the river, grow a little, go out to sea for years until they are mature enough to breed. Then they return to the same river to spawn. Pacific salmon die after spawning and Atlantic salmon don't. Pretty amazing!
Zombie salmon are a common occurrence at the end of fishing season here in alaska. They'll develop rot and be absolutely disgusting. That usually when I just stop fishing for the season
@@Randomyoutubecommenter I enjoy the cold but I’m a southern fella, do snow is too much for me. The heat isn’t as bad if he wasn’t so humid. Hot rain in 90 degrees is like being steamed.
@@DontRespectTheUS I guess you’re right, I love the summer but what I appreciate about it is that it comes and goes, doesn’t overwhelm you by staying around the whole year, and like you said the humidity is a deal breaker. I’m from MA so it makes sense, when I was born there was 5 feet of snow outside.
It is said that up to 30% of Atlantic salmon survive mating. There have been cases when some individuals survived even 3 or more matings! Those are usually larger, more experienced, and can therefore lay out more and by some accounts larger eggs! The main reason why others do not survive is energy. Jumping against the current is a very heavy task. As such they use/transform not only their muscle mass but their skeleton too. It is done to get calcium which somehow gives them energy and strength. They literally eat themselves in the process! Especially their own bones.
Calcium is the mineral our muscles use when contracting! They are used as calcium ions. The more u know. Potassium is used in a similar way to make muscles relax. It all makes sense now.
@@DBT1007 this is the funniest comment I've seen on RU-vid today. What an absurd question! Satire, I'm sure, but Imagine if it had been a genuine inquiry?? Certainly got a snort and smile out of me. Thank you for the laugh, my friend!
Gotta be happy for the guy, he completed the sacred journey and passed on his genes, he fulfilled his ultimate purpose. Rip salmon, you were a real one.
@@CnuuyBnuuy the thing doesn't even have an eye anymore and it's gasping for breath as it necrosis alive, it is definitely in extreme pain also why would you ask that to a dying man. not only is it a false dichotomy to compare a literal human to a fish, that elderly man is definitely uncomfortable to say the least, he's just not telling you all of it
@_-Rose-Therian-_ To maybe help you sleep a bit better at night: its peripheral nerves probably died first so it might not actually be capable of feeling the pain of its body decaying at this point (this is probably why it's on the beach, its brain can no longer control its swim bladder or most of its muscles due to the nerve loss) , though of course there's no guarantee. Humans with gangrene can sometimes feel nothing at all because of peripheral nerve death or be in agony, it's random.
When I looked at the thumbnail, I thought it was just going to be a video of the salmon just laying there, but as soon as I clicked the video, I got scared af and almost dropped my phone.
What a crazy existence. We take being human for granted. Could be worse, could've been born a salmon, being chased by bigger fish throughout life. If you make it to mate, you then face starvation, deadly fatigue, suffocation with your gills out, or being eaten alive by bears and birds.
Yeah being human is sooooo much better than being a salmon. we get to piss out pants everyday in the retirement home. we get to know we'll be pissing our pants everyday in the retirement home. At least the salmon is free for a while, it just swims, fucks and dies.
Salmonberg: Once my species passes on its genes, it dies. SalmonFry: So you have to choose between a life without sex and a grewsome death? Salmonberg: Yes SalmonFry: Tough call.
As someone who went to see creeks during spawning season as a field trip every year in elementary school I can attest to the fact that it does, in fact, smell just as bad as it looks.
The physical changes BEGIN a few weeks before spawning even starts, by the time they actually get to where they are headed, most fish are suffering from massive organ failure and their flesh has already started to decompose. It is at THIS POINT that mate selection and ACTUAL breeding takes place. Salmon are into some VERY extreme edgeplay.
@@killgriffinnow I'm, not? Unless there was a fairly recent study that proves me wrong, I haven't exactly been keeping up to date on the subject. But when I did look into it a few years ago, I found out fish don't have pain receptors, much like insects, and living beings need pain receptors in order to feel pain, at least in the way we do. I may be mistaken, but I'm not lying, there's a pretty big difference.
To add to the explanation everyone is giving; the reason salmon stop eating and start to decay ths moment they spawn is becuse young salmon will eat their parents remains. it's kinda like parasitic wasps but instead of eating a separate host species, they eat their own.
They don’t eat the parents directly. The dead bodies nourish the environment with nutrients and create more favorable conditions but the babies don’t eat their parents.
OMG - a bunch of years ago while fishing late season for salmon in bay area - martinez public pier i stood in amazement as a salmon that looked Just like that one swimming against the current [ it's about 6 knots on the outgoing tide ] and that Zombie salmon was still fighting it's way up river - I stood in awe of the site from over thirty five years ago and still a fresh memory ...
@@julioc.7760 NO no no no - the salmon don't spend much time at all in the delta or the refineries 😆😅🤣 but that was funny - now you can say that about All of the other fishes out there Hell read what the Health dept says about just eating fish from the bay or delta waters - thanks for the grin i have 😉
These things disintegrate as soon as they fulfill their purpose, merely touching this fish in the video will probable cause it to collapse into chunks of rotting flesh.
That's why salmon are so important to the ecosystems within the watersheds where they spawn. They feed so many different animals, when they die they provide nutrients to the river system, and bears will also carry them away into the forest where they'll decompose and provide nutrients for the huge trees that can be found in these areas. Once their eggs hatch, the cycle starts all over again. Unfortunately return numbers are dwindling and we're the only ones to blame.
i've recently seen fish farms that manually fertilize a huge bowl of eggs ( yes someone pretty much just squeezes fish semen into a bowl over fish eggs ) it could solve the issue? dump the fish once they hatch, they become food or grow up to produce own spawn, exponential results?
I can safely say, after having read the comments and watched the video twice in a row, I have officially lost my appetite for the day! Thanks RU-vid recommendations!
Still find it incredible how these guys will undergo an intense and monstrous transformation to survive the journey of where they spawned only for most of them to die afterwards from the amount of energy used.
There is no point to survive. They won’t mate again and if they stick around they would outcompete their offspring or even eat them. Also, the nutrients from their bodies might even indirectly benefit the offspring by boosting overall productivity in the ecosystem.
...And to slowly rot away whilst living. This happens to millions/billions of Salmon every Year and this has been happening for millions/billions of years. The suffering is infinite. There is no god.
I spent a couple of years living on the Hama Hama River above Eldon, WA, and saw a few salmon runs, mostly dog salmon, and along with them being epically odorific events, the spawns brought all kinds of wildlife to the river - and most importantly, steelhead and sea-run cutts trailing for the eggs. Some great fishing, those days :)
imagine if the zombie apocalypse slowly began with salmon washing up and people assuming they were just close to dying like this one. and then they go in the water….
Imagine mating just to fall into depression then wanders like a ghost, no goals in mind, no dreams to yearn, no stories to relay, no pride to show, just rot away into this lifeless corpse. *That could be one of us in the future.*
I always find it strange how so many people get married and then complain about it. You knew what you were getting into. I know it's was just a joke but just sayin
"The Hollogasts got another one, Miss Peregrine!" "Oh dear, which one?" "The child whose peculiarity is looking exactly like a salmon." "Not so much of a loss, really, eh?"
@@midmaze6990 Salmon in the ocean are grey, you're right about that. But spawning salmon turn red to attract a mate after swimming upriver. Their bodies absorb their scales, leaving them bright fleshy red. Unfortunately, this also leaves them vulnerable to infection, since their protective coating of fish-slime disappears with their scales. Hence the fungus growth and rotting flesh. At least this fish probably passed on its genes and helped create the next generation of salmon.
I'm from Washington state, this is after the salmon spawn. They just lay in the the rivers, decay and die. I've seen hundreds of salmon in one day in all different stages of decay just laying everywhere. We'd grab some that were still in good shape to take and eat.
IF IM NOT MISTAKEN...lol when salmon migrate from different bodies of water to a particular mating spot in the season to mate, their bodies aren't used to the different bodies of water (going from salt to freshwater). After they mate their bodies begin to decay from the water/mating changes. This is also known as "spawning". All salmon are a beautiful silver with mild characteristics to differentiate the different species, how ever when they start spawning or "zombifying" their mouths start to hook, backs start to hump like a camel, they begin to change colors drastically and they start to die while still being alive. If you want a good example, look up sockeye (aka red salmon) pre and post spawning. Pre spawn they are a beautiful silver sheen and white underbelly but post spawn their heads turn green and their bodies turn a dark blood scarlet. It's mf terrifying 🤣🤣 but good word of thumb if you catch a salmon, if it ain't a healthy silver, toss that bih back in the water lol don't eat it
@@ololusername Lol say that to vegans. For some reason vegans hate violence if it is somehow human related. For example, vegans hate the practice of fishing and ikejime, but look at this video isn't this much worse? Do you need me explain further?
The fact that salmon exhaust themselves to the point of death to reproduce us both sad and touching. I know it's primarily instinct, but its kind of a shitty deal for the fish
That is some wild material for a horror story... might take notes! Having to fulfill a terrible destiny to ensure the survival of at the cost of your own, while suffering a slow brutal death... at the end left nothing to do but reflect upon your own existence grasping the last breath
@@Swordsoulreaver Yeah I know. I just don't like seeing fish out of the water gasping. But if he was gonna snap at me, I wouldn't be inclined to help. Lol
This reminds me of a zombie movie I watched. I forget what exactly it was called, but it was centered around Native Americans, and the infection started with fish.
I can't remember the name atm, but I remember hearing about that one. However, I do remember that this channel called Dead Meat did a kill count on that movie. The one where the infection started with zombie dish, and the Native Americans were immune to the virus. I'll come back and edit this once I find the title. EDIT: I found the movie. It was a 2019 Canadian movie released on Shudder in 2020 called Blood Quantam.
Yeah there’s not much left of them by the time they fight their way to the spawning grounds and mate. It’s always amazing that they can endure in that shape for so long.
