Salmon, caribou, and a possible dissertation topic Last night
after I went to bed, I started thinking about salmon. Before I
went to bed, I was thinking about the population dynamics of
caribou herds and the recent sequencing of mammoth DNA. These
two thoughts led me start asking myself some questions about
salmon for which I don't think we have answers yet (if we do,
they are probably buried in some obscure journal of quaternary
studies). I think these questions would make a great
dissertation topic for the right biology student. Here's how it
came to me. In the Northwest, salmon are the most important fish
that there is. The British and Icelanders might think that cod
is important, Southerners think bass and catfish matter, and PZ
Myers will tell you more about zebra fish than you ever thought
possible, but we Northwesterners know that they have all
misplaced their fishy affections. Salmon is the most important
fish that there is. Commercial salmon fisheries are one of the
biggest industries in any territor