The salmon life cycle
Salmon start life in the river, but go to the sea to grow up. Fish that are born in freshwater and grow large in saltwater are called anadromous. Salmon have a fin that is typical of salmonids: the adipose fin. Our salmon are linked to the Atlantic Ocean. We therefore call it Atlantic salmon. The Latin name of the species is Salmo salar, which means springing or jumping. It fits well, because the salmon is good at jumping in waterfalls and rapids.
The wild salmon wheel of life
Salmon live their first years in the river. Then they develop to tolerate salt water. This is a process we call smoltification. The salmon is now a smolt.
The smolt swim through the fjord and out into the sea. Here they spend one to four years hunting for food and growing up.
When the salmon are big enough, they swim back home to reproduce. We call this spawning. The salmon almost always find their way back to the river they grew up in.
Spawning salmon
Spawning salmon are salmon that are about to spawn. Male salmon develop sperm and female salmon develop eggs. In the river, spawning salmon gradually change appearance. The male salmon become reddish-orange and the lower jaw develops a large hook. The female salmon become more brownish.
Roe
Roe is fish eggs. Salmon roe is orange and the grains are quite large for fish eggs. A female salmon can lay 1,450 eggs for every kilo she weighs. The male salmon fertilizes the eggs when the female salmon releases them. Fertilization and hatching take place outside the fish body.
Fry
We call young salmon fry. The newly hatched ones have a yolk sac on their stomachs. We call these plum sac fry. The sack contains all the nutrition the little salmon need for the first few weeks of their life. When it is used up, the fry must catch food themselves.
Parr
When the fry are one year old, we call them parr. The parr has distinct stripes on its sides. The stripes are good camouflage in flowing river water. The parr lives one to four years in the river. There it hunts for food and good hiding places.
Smolt
Smolt are parr that have undergone a transformation. The stripes have disappeared, and things have happened inside the body that enable it to withstand the transition from freshwater to saltwater. The smolt is ready to travel to the sea.
Adults
Towards the end of the first winter the smolt is in the sea, it starts to grow properly. From then on, we can say that the salmon is an adult. How long salmon stay in the sea varies. Some go home after just one year. Others stay for several years.