A salmon begins life as an egg laid in the gravel bed of a cold mountain stream. When the egg hatches, the tiny salmon lives a few weeks on nourishment from the yolk sac which is still attached to it. After it is done with this sac, it leaves its gravel bed to live in the stream. In pools of the river, mosquitoes breed in great numbers, and their larvae may become the main food of the young fish.
After spending five months to three years in fresh water, depending on the species, instinct causes the young salmon which have survived being eaten until then to swim toward the ocean. With hundreds or thousands of other young salmon, it begins the long trip to the ocean.
After a long swim downstream, the young salmon stay in the mouth of the river for up to several weeks. Here they finish adapting to the salt water of the ocean. This process, called smoltification, began as they traveled downriver. It affects their color, changing it to a silvery color to better camouflage them in the ocean. It also affects their gills. Special cells called “chloride cells” need to change how they act in order to pump extra salt out of their bodies. And their kidneys make less urine, to conserve water in the salty environment of the ocean.
The young salmon spend up to eight years in the ocean, feeding and growing larger. When fully grown, the salmon, weighing up to 126 pounds, turn back toward the mouth of the river where they entered the ocean. There the process of smolting is reversed so they can once again live in fresh water. Then, up the river they travel, fighting their way against the current until they arrive at their exact birthplace. On the way, they may have to jump waterfalls over ten feet high and cover up to 34 miles a day. Large numbers make the journey together, and some studies suggest that they work together to find their way “home.”
At their final destination, a female makes a trench in the gravel bed with her tail. There she lays thousands of eggs, which are soon fertilized by a male. She covers the eggs with gravel to keep them safe while they develop. Most Pacific salmon then die and their bodies become food for other creatures. They literally give their lives to provide life for their offspring.
Who made the salmon so it would change in all the right ways to be able to move from a river to the ocean and then back again? It was God who created them in that way in the beginning. As we see His wisdom in all of His works in creation, we can learn that His wisdom is available for us, too, to guide us and help us with all of our circumstances as we go through life.
Did You Know?
A salmon begins life as an egg laid in the gravel bed of a cold mountain stream.
Messages of God’s Love 6/8/2025