British Sign Language Glossaries of Curriculum Terms

BSL Marine Species Glossary - Pacific salmon - definition

Translation:

Pacific Salmon. The right hand in the sign represents the salmon and the movement copies the journey the salmon makes upstream. The left hand shows where the salmon live, which is the Pacific Ocean, off the west coast of North America. There are 5 species of Atlantic Salmon which vary in size from 0.8m up to 1.5m. They live in the ocean, but when they are older the male and female make their way back inland (at which point the males develop a hooked jaw). Swimming upstream along rivers, battling against the current, jumping over obstacles and increasingly shallow waters, they make their way back to their spawning grounds, where the females lay their eggs and the males fertilise them. Once the eggs have hatched and grown, the offspring swim downstream back to the ocean and their life cycle begins anew. Some Pacific Salmon are caught and eaten by bears as they make their way back to the sea; the bears wade into the rivers and grab them using their claws. The Bears know the salmon are coming and catch them to feed their own young. Pacific Salmon are mostly red in colour, their streamlined bodies vary in size according to their species.

Atlantic and Pacific salmon - definition in International Sign Language