How do salmon breed and the project that is giving them a helping hand

Can you imagine having to journey for thousands of miles in order to lay thousands of eggs and then just.. dying? That is what a female salmon goes through at the end of their life. Pretty awful - huh? 

          Salmon grow and mature in the ocean, but when they are ready to breed they enter fresh water in order to spawn, travelling to a stream or a pond high in oxygen. The female digs a redd (a hole) in the gravel with her tail. She lays thousands and thousands of eggs into it, many of which will not reach adulthood. It is then that the male fertilizes the eggs. Most of these salmon die after reproducing - their organs just give up. The newly emerged salmon which are called alevins have a food sac in them when they hatch and they stay in the nest. When the food sac is used up the salmon fry. When they emerge they eat mostly insects. As it grows it becomes camouflaged, called parr, and then turns silver into a smolt. After that it swims downstream to the wide, wide ocean. In the estury the fish adapts so that it can survive in the sea. Depending on the species the salmon live for one to seven years before swimming up stream to their place of birth and repeating the cycle. The salmon do not eat at all on the journey back. 

          One thing stands in the way of this incredible quest. The weir. This dreaded construction completely blocks the salmon's path on its voyage. If you're lucky, and you get the time of year right, you can sometimes see salmon leap out of the air and over the weir. However some salmon cannot get across that easily. Other threats to the journey are abandoned coppices causing collapse of many trees. 

          The Wye Habitat Improvement Project aims to make changes that allow the salmon to safely make the journey up the tributaries. Large areas will be improved to create a smooth ride for these slippery friends. It will work with farmers who own tributaries. The project aims to show the farmers that they can use the improvements for their own benefits such as fishing. After getting through a mountain of paperwork they have now received permission for the project from higher authority.