Sockeye salmon live in the northern Pacific Ocean, but breed in freshwater. They return to the freshwater systems of their birth in June and July, guided home by the characteristic odour of their parent stream. During spawning, each female deposits 2,000 eggs then both the males and females die soon after. Young salmon mature in the freshwater nurseries, and at two years of age finally depart for the open ocean. There are also landlocked populations of the sockeye that never return to the sea.

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