The Adam's River sockeye run is one of the natural wonders of the world. Every October, the river turns red as hundreds of thousands of mature, scarlet?humped sockeye salmon return from the Pacific Ocean to spawn and die in the same gravel beds where they hatched four years earlier.

Adam's River tells the story of the salmon's epic journey far out into the Pacific Ocean and back. Mark Hume brings together science and mythology in a fascinating story that reveals secrets of the Adam's River sockeye that are only now coming to light. He explains the salmon's vital role in the river's ecosystem, and in the lives of the people who for thousands of years have lived along the river's banks, and who have depended on the salmon for their livelihood.

With many beautiful color and black & white photographs by photographer Rick Blacklaws and sixteen original drawings by Tom Moore, Adam's River is the story of the magnificent creature that unites British Columbia's rugged coast with its interior — the salmon.

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Mark Hume is an award-winning journalist and former senior correspondent with the Vancouver Sun. He is the author of The Run of the River and Adam's River and has published articles in the Boston Globe, the Torotno Star, Equinox, Reader's Digest and Fly Fishing. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

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Mark Hume's profile page

Rick Blacklaws was born in Calgary, Alberta, and came to BC thirty years ago to complete his graduate studies in archaeology. During that time he has also travelled BC, photographing the province in all its regions and seasons. Trained in landscape photography, Rick creates images that document people and their relationship to the land. Ranchland is his third book; his most recent title, The Fraser River (text by Alan Haig-Brown), won the 1997 Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Book Prize.

Rick Blacklaws' profile page