Do they breathe freshwater? Are they essentially different than West Coast Salmon? Do they swim from the Great Lakes into surrounding rivers/estuaries to breed?
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Salmon aren’t actually native to the Great Lakes. The DNR started stocking them in the 60’s to counteract invasive alewives. They restock every year to keep the predator/prey ratio up, but the salmon don’t do great here naturally so they would eventually die out without human intervention as the alewife population drops. It’s one of the few instances where intentionally introducing species hasn’t blown up in our face.
Many will find streams and rivers off the lakes to spawn, but a lot of them get confused and end up in the same harbor where they were originally stocked. I’m not sure if any have made it all the way out to the ocean, but I highly doubt it. Salmon are at the end of their life cycle by the time they go up stream and it’s a long way down the Mississippi.
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