What is the Salmon Survival game? It is an easy to play but difficult to survive single page dice game. It is designed to be played solo and help the player understand how difficult it is to survive as a salmon in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. The game is free and available as a PDF that can be downloaded by clicking the link below:
Starting out as a million salmon that have hatched in a stream somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, your goal is to see how many of your salmon can make it to the open ocean and back to spawn a new generation. Your journey will include heading downstream to navigate the hazards found in the streams, lakes, and rivers before making it into the open ocean. Once in the open ocean your salmon will grow and flourish while avoiding obstacles for 36 months. At the end of this time, your salmon will try to head upstream to get back home to their original breeding grounds and spawn a new generation of salmon to start the process all over again.
destroyed habitat - Over the years, human beings have modified the environment to suit their wants. This includes everything from rerouting streams and rivers to building dams for power. Many of these modifications have had devastating effects on the slamons' ability to survive.
light pollution - Artificial light may be good for humans but it is very bad for salmon. Typically, tiny salmon get a break from being hunted when they can hide under the cover of darkness. Artificial light takes away that break and in some places salmon frys can be hunted twenty-four hours a day.
beautiful day - Not all days are bad. Some days salmon get to enjoy life and all of the wonders around them.
hungry sport fish - Many of our lakes now include invasive sport fish species such and big and small mouth bass. These bass will happily eat any little salmon they run into. These unexpected lake dwellers are terrible for salmon populations.
toxic chemicals - Cars may be good for humans but they are detrimental to salmon. Cars leak oil, emit ozone, and give off 6PPD-quinone which are all deadly to salmon. Humans also love to dump their chemical waste in streams, lakes, and rivers which is typically very bad for salmon.
climate crisis - Excessive heat in lakes reduces the habital zone for salmon. The heat increases the surface temperature of the lake and forces salmon deeper where water temperatures are tolerable. This same heat destroys plants that sink to the bottom of the lake and use up most of the oxygen. These forces make for a fairly thin habital zone where salmon can survive.
plastic pollution - Plastic is bad for all aquatic life and salmon are no exception.
chillax life - The open ocean is pretty expansive and some days slamon are left alone to enjoy the salt water and all it has to offer.
Orcas found us - Salmon are a great source of protein and fat which is why some Orca have made salmon a large part of their diet.
human fishing - Orcas are not the only predators that enjoy the taste of salmon. Constant fishing has obliterated salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest and it needs to slow way down.
swimming safely - If only there could be more days where salmon can relax and swim around, foraging for food. There may not be many but the salmon do enjoy the days when they are left alone.
seals got us - Humans and Orcas are not the only predators that enjoy the taste of salmon. Seals and sea lions also enjoy a good meal that includes salmon.
just keep swimming - Swimming and surviving, the two things salmon love to do the most. With no predators eating them and no chemicals destroying them, this time around the salmon get to enjoy themselves.
toxic chemicals - The same chemicals that can make it a bad day for salmon while they are moving downstream can have the same grim consequences while they are moving upstream.
man made dam - Dams not only prevent the water from going downstream but they also prevent salmon from going upstream. When salmon are not able to get back to their original spawning grounds to spawn, there is no next generation. There are removal projects that are helping but we need to do more.
beautiful day - What could be nicer than being left alone to live your life? Not much and the salmon enjoy it as well.
destroyed habitat - Sometimes when humans build things they don't put much thought into how it will effect other creatures. Culverts may seem like a good idea to reroute streams or rivers but they are very difficult to salmon to navigate.
bear encounters - During the fall bears are looking for food with a high fat content as they prepare for the winter. Salmon are an excellent source of fat and bears wholeheartedly take advantage of that.
calculations - The easiest way to track your salmon population is to keep it on your calculator. Start with 1000000 on your calcultor and each time your encounter a bad downstream event, mutiply your current salmon count by .5 to get your new count. When you are in the open ocean or going back upstream and have a bad event, multiply your current salmon count by .75 to get your new count. If you reach 0. anything, the game is over.