Life Cycle of the Salmon

The mother Salmon lays her eggs in a river and covers them with gravel and then the mother salmon leaves her eggs. This is called the Redd. The salmon breaks out of its egg and then eats  the yoke. It will hunt in the stream until it becomes a fry’.  They move deeper down the river. After becoming a  bit bigger it is called a Parr.The Parr is now getting bigger so it has to learn skills and it is not happy to share its  space. When they  go into fresh water or salt water it is called a smolt.  The smolt  eats insects and larvae. Sometimes the water isn’t clean.  Factories and housing estates ‘poison’ or waste sometimes goes into the river. The river is also  a dangerous place because they could become dinner!! They get caught in  nets, rods and cages . Salmon can also become enmeshed in the drift net.When a salmon goes out to sea it only weighs 50 grams. In a year and  half it will weigh 265 grams to 2500 grams. Salmon can swim as far as Greenland , Faroe islands  and the Norwegian sea. They eat sand eels, sprats and krill.  It has become a Grilse . When  two winters have passed it is called a Spring salmon. It then decides to return  to Ireland to lay its eggs in the stream where it was born. It lays thousands of eggs and they are fertilised by the silver salmon. Only 1/10 of the eggs may survive.