COLUMBIA RIVER BASIN - DAMS AND SALMON
Salmon Life Cycle
Click on the image below
The Columbia River Basin provides habitat for six species of anadromous salmon (chinook, coho, chum, sockeye, pink, and steelhead), shad, smelt and lamprey. Anadromous salmon hatch in fresh water rivers and tributaries where they rear for a year or two. They then migrate to and mature in the ocean, and return to their place of origin as adults to spawn. Salmon live two to five years in the ocean before returning to spawning areas.