The diagram below illustrates the various stages in the salmon life cycle.
Overall, there are seven main stages in the salmon life cycle, starts from spawning of adult fish and laying eggs in fresh water to becoming an adult fish. Each of the stages takes place in the water.
The salmon life cycle begins with spawning, when adult fish spawn and die within two weeks laying eggs in fresh water. Eggs hatch in about three months and alevins feed off the yolk sac for several weeks.
Following a period from five to ten weeks alevins grow up in fries. Next, then they become several months old they develop «finger» markings, and continue their growing. As soon as they become one to three years old they group and head out to sea, now they are smolts. Following this they become adult fish and spend one to eight years at sea, before spawning and finally die. From this point onwards the process repeats itself.
