Spawning salmon are salmon that are about to spawn. The male salmon develops sperm and the female salmon develops eggs. In the river, the spawning salmon gradually change appearance. The male salmon becomes reddish-orange and the lower jaw gets a large hook. The female salmon becomes more brownish.

Roe is fish eggs. Salmon roe is orange, and the grains are quite large for fish eggs. A female salmon can lay 1,450 roe grains for every kilogram she weighs. The male salmon fertilizes the roe when the female releases the eggs. Fertilization and hatching occur outside the fish's body.

We call small salmon fry. The newly hatched ones have a yolk sac on their stomach. We call these yolk sac fry. The sac contains all the nutrition the little salmon needs for the first few weeks of its life. When it is used up, the fry must catch food themselves.

When the fry are one year old, we call them parr. The parr has clear stripes on its sides. The stripes are good camouflage in flowing river water. The parr lives one to four years in the river. There it hunts for food and good hiding places.

Smolts are fish that have undergone a transformation. The stripes have disappeared, and things have happened inside their bodies that allow them to withstand the transition from freshwater to saltwater. The smolt is ready to travel to the sea.

Towards the end of the first winter the smolt is in the sea, it starts to grow properly. From then on, we can say that the salmon is an adult. It varies how long the salmon is in the sea. Some go home after just one year. Others stay there for several years.