The salmon life cycle has several stages: 1. Eggs are laid in gravel stream beds and hatch after a month into alevin with large yolk sacs. 2. Alevin absorb their yolk sacs and emerge as fry to feed on plankton and insects. 3. Fry develop stripes and turn silver as smolt before swimming to the ocean to grow as adults. 4. Mature adults return to their home streams to spawn, digging nests to lay eggs before dying.

1. The Salmon
Life Cycle

2. Hi there, my name is
Fred and I LOVE fishing!
I was out fishing today
and I saw a fish I had
never seen before. My
Dad tells me its called a
Salmon. I took a
picture, let me show you!

3. I don’t know much about
salmon…I would like to find out
more about how they grow up!

4. Lets start at the very beginning….
Eggs
The first stage of the life cycle. A female
Salmon deposits as many as 10,000 bright
pink eggs, about one-fourth inch in diameter.
They are laid in the gravel of a stream. After
about a month, eyes become visible within the
eggs.
Lets
think

5. Let’s think …..
• To protect them from predators and direct
sunlight
• Were you correct?
Answer
Why do you think the
eggs are laid in the
gravel of a stream?

6. Alevin
In late winter and spring,
salmon eggs hatch and
become alevins
(pronounced ay-le-vins) .
The alevin is a fragile creature
with huge eyes and a large yolk sac protruding
from its belly. The vitelline vein, running through
the center of the sac, extracts oxygen from the
water. The at this stage remains under gravel,
protected from predators and other hazards.
Agood flow of pure water is
critical to alevin survival.
Lets
think

7. Let’s think …..
• The orange yolk sac contains a balanced diet of
protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals
for the Alevin to live off.
• Were you correct?
Answer
What could the large
yolk sac be for?

8. Fry
Alevins absorb their yolk
sacs and emerge from
the gravel as fry in late
spring and summer. About
an inch long, they are easy prey for larger fish.
Fry feed on plankton and small insects. At this
stage, important survival requirements include
good streamside cover and an ample food supply.

9. Smolt
The fry loose their stripes and turn a
Silvery colour. At the smolt stage, they
Head downstream. Four to six inches long,
They swim seaward in late May during the
spring rains, and enter
salt water, where
they grow to adulthood.

10. Adult
Ocean adult salmon spend varied amounts of
time in the sea, ranging up to five years. They
eat as much as possible and grow rapidly in the
Ocean feeding grounds.

11. Spawning Adult
Usually in the early summer of their
maturing year, salmon begin to head back
to their home streams, navigating at least
partially by their sense of smell.
They stop feeding as they enter fresh water,
living on stored body fats. They struggle sometimes for weeks against
falls and obstructions to reach the same spawning beds in which they
themselves were hatched. When a pair of salmon reaches its
spawning ground, the female digs a nest to lay her eggs in. The male
Fertilizes them by covering them with a milky substance known as milt.
The female then covers the eggs with gravel to complete the spawning
process. The salmon’s life is finished and within a short time it dies and
the body drifts downstream, providing nutrients to the stream system
as it decays
Nest
Facts

12. Nest Facts
• The Salmons nest is also known as a
redd
• The redd can be up to 16 inches deep in
the gravel.
Lets see
how much
you have
learned

13. Label the stages of the life cycle