Laying and fertilizing eggs [The following is an excerpt from the Adopt-A-Stream Foundation Field Guide to the Pacific Salmon, by Robert Steelquist. We are grateful to Sasquatch Books, 1008 Western Avenue, Suite 300, Seattle, Washington for granting us permission to reproduce this description of salmon spawning.] Early in spawning, as many as 1200 eggs may be released into the nest, the number decreasing in subsequent nests. As they are released, current eddies in the depression pull most eggs downward into the nest to less turbulent water where sperm has settled and where they become lodged in the gravel.