Page 13 - 2021PSF-ResilientCoastsForSalmon-NewLogo-Primer-Web

Image B-03400 courtesy of the Royal BC Museum

Chapter 3 – The Value of Salmon

As British Columbians, many of us have grown up fishing and eating salmon, appreciating
salmon-centric art and witnessing the annual migrations and spawning events as salmon
return to our local rivers — salmon are woven into our cultures and our way of life on the
coast . In British Columbia there are five well known species of Pacific salmon: Chinook,

Coho, Sockeye, Chum and Pink . Each species has unique features, but they all have a similar
life cycle starting with hatching from eggs laid in freshwater streams, migrating to sea and
returning as adults to their natal streams to spawn and die (Figure 3 .1) . This journey of
the Pacific salmon has shaped the way our freshwater and marine ecosystems function,
contributing to their incredible diversity and productivity .

Figure 3.1 – The life cycle of anadromous
Pacific salmon, starting in the fresh spawner
water of rivers, streams and creeks, roe
featuring estuaries and the open
ocean, and ending back in the alevin SALMON LIFE CYCLE
waters where they were born. Freshwater Saltwater
Illustrations by: Anisha Parekh
fry
adult
smolt

Salmon are incredible creatures who migrate
from saltwater to freshwater to carry out their life help them camouflage, then into unmarked smolts
cycle . We call salmon anadromous because they during their out migration to the marine environment .
make this long trip from the ocean back up to the Fry and smolts often spend some time in estuaries
freshwater rivers where they were born to spawn . to grow stronger and larger before they enter the
The salmon life cycle starts when salmon alevin open ocean on their migration as adults . Depending
emerge from their eggs hidden in patches of gravel on the species, adult salmon spend 1-4 years in the
called redds in freshwater streams, rivers and creeks . ocean before beginning their migration back up to
They develop and grow into fry with parr marks to their natal rivers to spawn .

12