The illustration demonstrates how a salmon develops over the course of its lifetime.
Generally speaking, the salmon passes through three different stages of life, taking between nine to ten years to reach its final adult form.
In the beginning, the salmon starts its lifecycle as one salmon egg among others. These eggs are deposited beneath the small stones with a patch of reeds in slow-moving upper river. Once an egg hatches about half a year after being laid, it produces a fry, roughly three to eight centimeters long.
The next step for the fry is to swim to fast flowing lower river. After remaining in this river for about 4 years, the fry transitions into a 12-15cm long smolt and heads for the open sea.
The smolt spends around five years in the open sea. Subsequent to passing half a decade, the fish enters its final form as an adult salmon, measuring 70-76cm, before returning to the upper river to lay its eggs in the reeds and restart the cycle.