Salmon are one of the best-known species of fish on Earth. They are extremely popular as a food thanks to their great flavor. Amateru fishermen love catching them because they are large and make excellent trophies, as well as the fact that there is plenty of meat on them to enjoy.

Of course, salmon also make an excellent meal for bears, other fish, and many other things out in the wild.

Living life as a meal ticket for so many other animals can be difficult. Prey animals like smaller fish, insects, mice, and others often breed frequently and in high numbers to help offset the fact that so many of them will not make it to adulthood. While salmon certainly breed in high numbers, laying thousands of eggs at a time, they take the opposite route when it comes to reproducing easily.

Salmon famously migrate from the oceans where they spend their adult life into freshwater streams and rivers. On its own, this is a difficult process, requiring the salmon to swim upstream long distances, which is exhausting. All along the way, the salmon are hunted by bears, humans, and others.

To say that many of them don’t make it back to their spawning areas would be an understatement.

For those that do make it and lay their eggs, the trip was likely so difficult that they end up dying in the river where they were hatched. Their bodies decay in the area, providing nutrients to the plants and their offspring to make them strong enough to grow and repeat the cycle.

Those eggs will mature in the freshwater rivers, protected by the rocky bottoms and nourished by the food and oxygen-rich waters around them. After hatching, these tiny salmon will stay in the river for some time while they grow and mature. Once ready, they will follow the flow of the water for miles until they reach the oceans.

During that process, they need to develop the ability to survive in the salt water, which again is no easy process.

This is an example of ‘high risk, high reward’ reproduction.

While a great many of the salmon will never reach the point of reproduction, those that do are able to have lots of healthy eggs. These eggs can then develop well in the relative safety of the freshwater before moving on to the oceans, where there is plenty of food for them to be able to grow large and strong.

While it certainly isn’t easy, it is hard to argue with its success. Salmon have been going through this process for thousands of years, and even though they are among the most sought-after fish, they continue to thrive.

The salmon life cycle is incredible.

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