noun
- a young salmon that has developed silvery scales and is ready to migrate from fresh water to the sea
Usage: biology; fisheries
Examples
- The smolt swam downstream toward the ocean.
- Researchers tagged hundreds of smolt to track their migration patterns.
- During spring, smolt leave their natal streams for saltwater.
- The dam created barriers that prevented smolt from reaching the sea.
- Biologists studied the survival rates of smolt in different river systems.
- Hatcheries release thousands of smolt into the wild each year.