Eggs
Each farm-raised salmon begins with eggs hatched from strong, healthy adult fish known as broodstock. All Grieg eggs come from carefully selected, locally-raised broodstock. The eggs are fertilized and incubated in hatcheries until they are born.
Alevin
Newly hatched baby salmon are called alevin. At this stage in their development, the fish feed from their yolk sac.
Newly transferred fry at Grieg’s Gold River Hatchery.
Fry
When the alevin have fully absorbed their yolk sac they become fry. The fry are transferred into fresh-water tanks until they are large enough to be moved to salt water.
Smolt
Fry are big enough to be transitioned to salt water are called smolts. Our smolts are carefully transported by truck and boat to ocean pens at the farm sites.
Adults
Smolts grow to adult fish under the care of our fish farmers until they reach a harvest size of 5-6 kg (10-12 pounds). It takes 18-22 to months to raise a fish to harvest size. Once the fish have reached harvest size, they are transported to the processing plant.
To view the full-sized PDF of a lifecycle of farm-raised salmon, click here: Salmon Lifecycle PDF file.