Cloaked Head Salmon

Written by George Sanders

This is the fish that brings everyone to the annual Etonia Fish and Biscuit Rally. They swarm into the Bay of Claws and gather around the estuaries on the East side of the bay.
Some suspect the fish was tinkered with in the distant path. A thick boney flap extends over the top of the fish to the dorsal fin. This flap can deflect all but the sharpest harpoons. The jaws of the fish can cut through a quarter inch thick iron hook. Their powerful bodies and jaws can break or cut through nets and rope. It is seems evolved to prevent fishing by those of us on the land.
The fish navigate far up the rivers of the forests to lay their eggs. After spawning has occurred the fish return to the bay and are exhausted. It is at that time when they can be scooped up with a net or speared with a harpoon.
Before the skills needed to catch them improved many of the fish would die in the bay. Large groups of predators would gather at the mouth of the bay where it met the ocean to eat the rest. Often the fish would linger in the bay, many would say the waited for the fishers. Perhaps a reflecting a time in the past where they were also collected after spawning.
The fish were always a treasured catch. The large fish could feed a family for days. This brought people to the coast seasonally. An awakening of sorts occured the year fish rained from the sky. Farmers up and down the coast and hunter-gathers from the forest all would show up in the Spring to help. The rally season cooresponds to the period of time the fish are recovering in the bay and is the culmination of decades of influence the fish have had on the people of the Wildlands.