Has Anyone Seen a Salmon Or Steelhead Trout?

LIFE STAGE / WHERE ARE THEY? / HABITAT NEEDS
Egg / In a river or stream bed, buried 1-2 feet deep in a nest of gravel, called a redd. / · Clean gravel that water can flow through
· Sufficient flows
· Cold water temperatures
· Plenty of Dissolved Oxygen
· No food is required. Nutrients supplied by egg yolk.
Alevin (Sac fry) / Still buried in the gravel. Now they can move around, but they stay buried for several more weeks. When their yolk sacs are empty, they must swim out of the gravel to find food. / · Clean gravel that the fish can to get through when they swim up. Silted gravel can trap them.
· Sufficient flows
· Cold water temperatures
· Plenty of Dissolved Oxygen
· No food is required. Nutrients supplied by yolk sac on tiny fish's stomach.
Fry / In the margins of the river, or in places where the current is not too swift. As they grow bigger and stronger, they take up positions in swifter water. / · Protection from predators: under cut stream banks, tree roots, submerged logs, deep pools, rocks and gravel, and white water areas all provide cover.
· Food - mostly insects and other small stream dwelling animals
· Cold water and sufficient dissolved oxygen
Smolts / At some point just before, or in conjunction with smolting, the fish begin their down stream journey. They may swim hundreds of miles, past many obstacles and dangers before reaching the estuary. / Smolts need everything fry need.
They also need straightforward, unobstructed downstream access to the ocean.
Adults / Adult fish roam the Pacific Ocean for 2-4 years. They may not have to travel far because the ocean just off the California and Oregon coastline is rich with food.
When the fish become mature, they return to the river of their birth to spawn. / Adults in the ocean climb towards the top of the food chain as they grow larger. They need protection from over harvest at sea.
The warm ocean water of El Nino years hurt the salmon by reducing available food.
When fish return to the river, they need sufficient river flows and free access to their spawning grounds. Water must be cold and oxygen rich.
Most salmon stop eating once they enter fresh water.
Spawners / Moving upstream and at the spawning beds, near the place of their own birth. / · Sufficient water flows
· Unobstructed access upstream
· Cold, oxygen rich water
· Protection from poaching
· Enough clean gravel for every fish to spawn
Big fish, like chinook salmon choose larger gravel, while smaller fish, like steelhead, use smaller gravel. This helps reduce competition for spawning beds.