Chinook Salmon Spawning

This series of video clips was filmed over a period of about three weeks during May/June 2014 from the banks of a Canterbury lowland stream using a GoPro camera mounted on an extendable pole.

The videos show the spawning life cycle of a Chinook salmon hen which I am pretty sure is the same fish.It was identified among others by it’s distinctive split dorsal fin and also being “fin clipped” (adipose fin removed when a smolt )
Finally the carcass of the salmon hen came to rest beside another salmon and redd about 400 meters downstream.
Unfortunately heavy rain soon after caused the stream to rise and both the second salmon and the carcass were not found again.

Video made by and courtesy of Kevin Belcher.