The Atlantic Salmon is a large fish growing to 75cm in length by around 2 years old.

They are blue-silver in colour with black dots on the back, some have a slight pink tone to the underside. The young feed on insects, invertebrates and sometimes plankton while the adults feed on small fish.

Rivers such as the Dart provide an important habitat for part of the Salmon’s life cycle. Salmon spend much of their lives at sea, some as far away as Greenland. When it is time to breed they make an incredible journey back to the exact river where they were spawned. The fish die soon after breeding.

Salmon can leap over huge obstacles blocking their way. There are records of Salmon jumping over a three-metre obstacle. You can help Salmon by not building dams across rivers and streams as the Salmon are not able to leap over them in shallow water and they become trapped and die.

Salmon is a priority conservation species and currently considered to be under threat.

Wild populations are low due to factors such as river pollution, habitat loss, river heating due to lack of tree cover and over-fishing.