Life Cycle of Salmon

Today we had a special visitor in our class, she was from FISH, Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery. She taught us about the lifecycle of salmon. First, they are eggs. Then they turn into eyed eggs,which are eggs with eyes. Following eyed eggs, it turns into an alevin, where they have a body, but also have the egg sac for food. Next is a fry. A fry is a small fish, it also has spots. After a fry, is a smolt. A smolt is a fish without spots. And then it heads for the ocean. There they become an adult. An adult is the one who returns to the spot where they were hatched, and gets to be the spawner. She has to trace back to where they were born and lay their eggs, then unfortunately they die. A female fish will swim in front of a male, a male fish swims right behind the female with his head almost touching her tail. When she lays her eggs he fertilizes them with milt. After this they both die, but the young hatch and the life cycle begins again.

This was a very cool way to spend the morning. I hope you get to learn as much as I did about Salmon.

posted by Miles.