UPCOMING SALMON SPAWNING SEASON

[Anchor Lead]

The salmon spawning season has come with scores of salmon returning to the sea off Gangwon-do Province and local streams. Yangyang, home to the largest salmon spawning area, is busy these days collecting salmon eggs and preparing for a salmon festival.

[Pkg]

A stream on the east coast of Gangwon-do Province... Scores of fish the size of a grownup's arm swim in water. They are female salmon released into the ocean five years ago. Early this month, they began returning to the coastal area of Gangwon-do Province to spawn. Their bodies have numerous scars - evidence of a long, grueling journey from the Pacific Ocean to their hometown. Exhausted, they continue to struggle against the strong current, but they manage to swim upstream.

[Soundbite] KIM JOO-KYUNG(INLAND WATERS RESOURCES CENTER) : "There are several hypotheses about this. One of them is that salmon remember the odor of their home streams. Another hypothesis says they use magnetic fields to return home."

Female salmon that swim into this research center connected to the stream are gathered for egg collection. Eggs of some 40,000 grownup salmon will be collected to raise nine million young fish that will be released into streams on the coast of Gangwon-do Province next year. Meanwhile, preparations for a salmon festival are picking up speed. About 40,000 fish are needed for the event, which kicks off on October 24 for a four-day run. The salmon will be used in cooking and hand-fishing events, and will be brought in every morning from a nearby port.

[Soundbite] KIM WOO-SEOP(YANGYANG-GUN COUNTY GOVERNMENT) : "About 70 percent of the returning salmon swim toward the Namdaecheon Stream. When fishermen catch them in the sea, we put them in here."

The salmon run season is bringing a lot of excitement to Gangwon-do Province as it helps boost its tourism sector.