Saving the Salmon

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The Salmon Life Cycle: As salmon move through their cycle of birth, maturation, reproduction and death, they migrate through a variety of ecosystems where they are vulnerable almost every step of the way. The eggs A hatch in shallow streams, releasing larvae, or alevins B, which within a few months become juvenile fish called parr. Parr, in turn, grow into 8-in. smolts C in about two years, and it is these small, silvery fish that make the improbable migration from freshwater river to saltwater ocean. Smolts that survive the trip--and plenty don't--spend four years at sea, feeding and growing to full adult size (3 lbs. to 126 lbs.). Then they begin the long upstream journey D back to their hatching grounds, where they spawn and, a few weeks later, die. A small number of adults may survive this stage and, stubbornly, return to the ocean to repeat the cycle once more.