His Royal Airness

So, just how high can a salmon jump, anyway? Well, it depends on things like species and other variables like the relative depth of the water at the foot of the fall, current velocity, speed of the fish, etc.

Atlantic salmon (Salmon Salar or “the leaper” in Latin), seem to be the best of the jumpers and have been known to make a vertical leap of 12 feet over Orrin Falls in Scotland.

That’s pretty crazy when you think of it in relative terms. Those salmon going over the 12-foot high falls are making a jump that’s 4 times their body length. Even Michael Jordan would be jealous!

This picture is of a high-flying coho that I shot while hanging out in Southeast Alaska.

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