The migrations that make up the well-known salmon life cycle have long been described as one way at a time. Juvenile salmon hatch and swim down rivers to the ocean, where they grow and mature before returning to the same river to spawn the next generation. Turns out that many young salmon do things differently, according to new research by NOAA Fisheries, Tribal, and university scientists. The findings were published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. They discovered that as many as 22% of juvenile salmon in California and Washington streams swam downriver to the ocean and then back up other rivers as many as 9 times. They reached rivers as far as 40 miles away along the coast.