spawning
Wild male and female Sockeye salmon before spawning. Sockeye salmon are blue tinged with silver in color while living in the ocean. Just prior to spawning, both sexes turn red with green heads. Sockeye spawn mostly in streams having lakes in their watershed. The young fish spend up to three years in the freshwater lake before migrating to the ocean. Migratory fish spend from one to four years in salt water, and thus are four to six years old when they return to spawn. Navigation to the home river is thought to be done using the characteristic smell of the stream, and possibly the sun.