Life Cycle of Salmon

[Chris Gearhart]

Can any of you guys tell me what the time line is from when salmon deposit thier eggs and when they begin to hatch (forgive me if the terminology is in correct, maybe someone could help with that too) ?
Also any recomendations for books on the subject would be appreciated.

I began wondering about the fate of newly deposited eggs in the rivers in consideration of the flows we have been having.

Thanks,
Chris

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I think I read it was ~60 days?

[Tony Buzolich]

For the past few weeks the seagulls have been swarming at Thermolito and at Shanghai Bend fallson the Feather. They also swarm at the bottom of the island below Sailor Bar on the American.

These seagulls are feeding on the natural hatching alevin and smolt that are drifting there way down stream toward the ocean.

The salmon on the Feather have been spawning since mid-October and if the eggs hatch in a 60-90 day period, this is just about right for all these birds to be feeding.

Don't forget about everybody else in the river that feds on these guys. They're often called Striper Candy.
TONY

[darmocido]

Temperature or better known as thermal units is the main factor that determines the time between each of the Salmon's life cycle from the egg stage stage to the fry stage. Generally, the Chinook Salmon eggs will eye approximately 30 days after fertilization, about ninety days from fertilization the salmon will swim up out of the redds as fry and begin their journey to the Estuary. Here the salmon turn into smolts and complete a variety of changes in bahavior and body functions, mainly the regulation of salts anywhere from 3 to 5 weeks. Finally, the Salmon enter the ocean and will remain there from 1 to 4 years before entering their home stream to spawn. ARMO

[darmocido]

Chinook Salmon need approiximately 900 - 950 thermal units to hatch and 1500-1550 thermal units to emerge out of their redds. This would be equal to the following: @ 40 degrees F water temperature 80 days to hatch, @ 45 degrees F water temperature 48 days, and @ 50 degrees water temperature 31 days to hatch as an alevin. Hope this helps. ARMO

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Thanks David.

David is the guy who helped get the "Trout in the Classroom" project going, which is now world wide.

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/coned/caep.html

David's web site:

http://www.xcaddis.com/index.html

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Here is a web site for the Central Coast Salmon Enhancement project:

http://www.centralcoastsalmon.com/step/step.html

http://www.centralcoastsalmon.com/step/alevin.jpg