Pacific Salmon

Identification

King: black gums and spots on both lobes of the tail, largest of the five. Coho: white gums with a black mouth, spots on the upper tail lobe only. Sockeye: no distinct spots, turning deep red with a green head to spawn. Pink: large oval spots and a pronounced dorsal hump in spawning males. Chum: vertical purple or olive bars and, in males, conspicuously large teeth.

Habitat & Range

Anadromous. Rear in fresh water or estuaries, mature at sea, and return to natal streams to spawn over gravel. In Southeast Alaska, most streams wider than about three feet that reach salt water support at least a small coho run.

North Pacific rim, from California through Alaska and across to Japan and Russia. Chinook, coho and pink are also naturalised in the Great Lakes.

Diet & Feeding

Zooplankton and small crustaceans when young; herring, needlefish, squid and other baitfish at sea. All five stop feeding once they enter fresh water to spawn.

Spawning & Reproduction

All Pacific salmon die after spawning — unlike steelhead, brown trout and brook trout, which survive and return. Timing is species-specific and can differ by three months in the same creek: around Ketchikan, pinks fill streams in summer, chum run late August into early September, and the main coho run enters between mid-August and November.