Salmon Life Cycle - Spawning

In late autumn, fertilised eggs are deposited in a riverbed Redd. The adult fish, now Kelt, return to sea. They may spawn again 1-2 years later.

A fish being "spawned". A harmless exercise where the eggs and milk are taken from the hen and cock fish respectively and then left to fertilise before being "laid on" - see next picture.	This photo was taken the same day as the one on the left. As you can see, there are still fresh fish entering the river as late on as November, December time. In this case, the fish was not ready for spawning and was returned to the river for next season!

The spawning process is a harmless one. A net is placed at the bottom of a known spawning ground, and a net is placed at the top, which is then walked down by several men. When the two nets meet, the fish are stored in a large pocket inside the bottom net. The fish are kept in that pocket (and thus, in the water) until they are ready to be spawned. Once the fish has been spawned (a harmless exercise to the fish), they are very gently returned to the river and watched as they swim away quite happily.

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