h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The subject closest to my heart! I know where I'm heading for my hols this year!

For good fishing, though the stock may be depleted, I recommend Beautiful British Columbia, Vancouver Island.

Probably the most sophisticated cultural reverence of salmon can be found in the Pacific Northwest coast of North America. For thousands of years the fish was revered and was a staple of native people's diets. This editor, as a child, has seen ancient photographs and films show rivers as large as the Columbia so thick with fish that the fisherman need only dip a net and pull it out full. Folk tales exist near many rivers in Oregon and Washington of the times when the salmon were so thick you could walk across the river on their backs, and never get your feet wet.

Recent decades have seen the salmon populations dwindle to near extinction levels in many Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia rivers. the United States has placed several runs of salmon on its Endangered Species list.

The salmon still holds a great deal of cultural significance in the Pacific Northwest today, among native and non-native peoples. Smoked salmon is still served at many important social events, such as birthdays, weddings, graduations, etc. Hence the proverb, "It's not a party unless there's a fish involved."