The illustration depicts how a salmon grows during its lifespan.
Overall, the cycle consists of three stages, starting from the salmon eggs produced and finishing with the return to upper river for spawning.
It can be seen that the cycle begins with an amount of salmon eggs laid on the upper river, surrounding with reeds and small stones. Typically, it takes approximately 5-6 months for the egg to hatch and develop into a so-called species, fry, which length is 3-8cm. The fry travels to the lower river, where the flow moves faster, in the next 4 years before growing in a bigger size and becoming a smolt.
At the third step of the process, the smolt continues its journey by spending 5 years migrating to an open sea, and then it reaches a full maturity stage. After that, the mature salmon returns to its birth place in order to lay eggs. From there, the process can now be repeated.
