Salmon lay their eggs in the fall, in gravel beds in streams 10 to 700 miles
from the sea.
Eggs hatch into alevins. They
grow rapidly under the gravel for three to four months. Alevins emerge
from the gravel as fry in May and June.
When salmon are about an inch long, they are free swimming, and are easy
prey for larger fish.
In spring salmon head downstream to the sea. They are called fingerlings
during this phase of their lives, and grow up to four inches long.
Salmon go to sea in search of food, feeding on a variety of smaller species.
After spending from six months to six years at sea, adult salmon are drawn back
to spawn in the streams where they were hatched.
Salmon stop feeding as they enter fresh water, living on stored body fats.
They return to the calm waters of the spawning river where they were born.
