Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • This flower lives in a lush Alaskan meadow.

  • But it's survival depends on the deep ocean, hundreds of miles away.

  • What could possibly bind the two together?

  • These guys - chum salmon.

  • As adults, they patrol the Pacific, gorging themselves and growing fat.

  • But after a few years,

  • The streams where they were born call to them.

  • The salmon are hypnotized by smell of the freshwater, flowing from melting snow on the

  • mountains above.

  • By the thousands, they mob together and charge upstream.

  • Eagles feast on the stampede of flesh.

  • The salmon are relentless.

  • They don’t even eat.

  • They just swim.

  • Theyre reaching the end of their lives,

  • But they have one last thing to do before they die

  • Females dig little nests in the gravel with their tails.

  • Then they lay their eggs, which the males fertilize.... thoroughly.

  • Then she covers them up.

  • For most of these salmon, there’s no hope of making it back to sea.

  • It’s the end for them.

  • But wait, this story isn’t done.

  • One way or another, the salmon carcasses make their way up onto the river banks,

  • into the forest.

  • But bears are sloppy eaters, they take their favorite bits and leave rest to decay.

  • That’s a score for these blow flies.

  • They taste the flesh to make sure it’s to their liking - but not because theyre going

  • to eat it.

  • Their kids will call this carcass home.

  • The fly eggs hatch into maggots that set to work devouring the salmon.

  • Rotting flesh is their thing.

  • When theyve had their fill, the maggots squirm off and bury themselves underground

  • until theyre ready to emerge as adult flies.

  • They scatter off to live their lives in the forest.

  • When they die or get eaten, the nutrients from the salmon

  • get spread throughout the ecosystem.

  • Things like nitrogen, that plants need to grow.

  • So the river is like an artery - bringing an influx of vital nutrients direct from the

  • deep ocean.

  • In these coastal forests, up to 80% of the nitrogen in the plants can be traced back

  • to the salmon

  • And the blow flies have one more important job - pollinating fields of flowers.

  • It’s all thanks to these intrepid fish - who nourish an entire ecosystem.

  • Year after year.

  • These little guys are baby coho salmon, ready to take their first big journey out into the

  • ocean.

  • Make sure youre in on our journey, and hit that subscribe button.

  • Well let you know about new episodes, twice a month.

  • And check out this episode of It’s OK to Be Smart about why beavers are master builders.

  • It’s from the same trip to Juneau, Alaska where we filmed this episode.

  • See you next time.

This flower lives in a lush Alaskan meadow.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it