Linda Ann Atkins, age 13, of Rutland, Vt., for her question:

HOW MANY KINDS OF SALMON ARE THERE?

There are seven species of salmon: Atlantic, cherry, chinook, chum, coho, pink and sockeye. All except the Atlantic salmon live in the Pacific Ocean.

Salmon is one of the most important food and sport fishes. Millions of the fish are caught and canned each year.

The correct pronunciation for the fish is "sam uhn." You do not pronounce the "L."

The most valuable salmon for food is the sockeye. Sometimes this fish is called a blueback or red salmon. The sockeye measures about two feet long and weighs about 10 pounds. Kokanee salmon are a landlocked variety of sockeye salmon.

The largest species is the chinook, also known as the blackmouth, king, quinnat, spring, tube or tyee salmon. Most chinooks are about three feet long and weigh about 20 pounds.

The smallest species is the pink, or humpback, salmon. It grows to be about 15 to 20 inches long and weighs about five pounds.

Scientists have introduced the coho and several other kinds of salmon into the Great Lakes. The salmon have done very well there. They provide excellent fishing and also help control the number of alewives, small fish that had become a nuisance because they multiplied so rapidly.

Salmon are born in fresh water streams and most of them then spend part of their lives in the salt water of the oceans. They later return to the fresh water streams of their birth to reproduce. This is called "spawning."

Pacific salmon spawn only once and then die soon afterward. Atlantic salmon may swim back to the ocean after spawning and then return to the fresh water to spawn as many as three times more. Most salmon spawn during the summer or autumn after swimming upstream as far as 2,000 miles from the ocean. The journey usually takes the fish several months to complete.

Female salmon lay their eggs in the gravelly bed of a shallow, rippling stream. A male salmon stands guard as the female turns on her side and digs a saucer shaped nest in the gravel by swishing her tail back and forth. The female lays her eggs in the nest and the male fertilizes them with sperm. The female then swims forward a short distance, digs another nest and lays more eggs.

The male and female will repeat the spawning process a number of times. The gravel dug from each nest normally washes back and covers the previously laid group of eggs. The female lays from 2,000 to 10,000 eggs.

The eggs hatch after three or four months and the baby salmon then lie hidden in the gravel for several weeks. They feed on the yoke sacks attached to their stomachs.

Some species of salmon leave fresh water for the ocean almost immediately after they come out of the gravel. Other kinds may spend up to three years in fresh water before they head out to the sea.