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, and high Omega-3 oil content.

• Oncorhynchus gorbuscha is called pink or humpback. This species is found from northern California and Korea, throughout the northern Pacific, and from the Mackenzie River in Canada to the Lena River in Siberia.

The young hatch by mid-winter and migrate to the ocean by spring. They move into the deep ocean in the fall where they stay for two years. When mature, the pink salmons return to spawn close to the coast, some in intertidal areas.

Beginning in the late nineteenth century, fish traps were used to supply fish for commercial canning and salting. The industry expanded steadily until 1920. During the 1940s and 1950s, pink salmon populations declined drastically. Fish traps were prohibited in Alaska in 1959. Now most pink salmon are taken with purse seines and drift or set gillnets. Some increase in population is evident.

• Oncorhynchus keta is called chum or dog or calico. This species has a wide geographic range: south to the Sacramento River in California in the eastern Pacific and the island of Kyushu in the Sea of Japan in the western Pacific; north to the Mackenzie River in Canada in the east and to the Lena River in Siberia in the west.

Most chum salmon spawn in small streams and intertidal zones, especially among stalks of eelgrass. The young feed on small insects in streams and estuaries, then move out to saltwater in the fall. They mature after three, four, five, or six years. Some chum travel more than 2,000 miles up the Yukon River.

• Oncorhynchus kisutch (Walbaum) is called coho or silver. This species is found throughout the coastal waters of Alaska and up most clear-running streams and rivers. The eggs hatch in the spring. Young often spend the first winter in off-channel sloughs. Some fish leave fresh water in the spring, spend summer in brackish estuarine ponds and then migrate back into fresh water in the fall. Coho spend one to three winters in streams (or up to five winters in lakes) before migrating to the sea.

This species is a fighting fish and provides fine sport in fresh and salt water from July to September, especially with light tackle.

External Links

• Alaska Deptartment of Fish & Game Wildlife Notebook Series
• http://www.critfc.org/ Tribal Salmon Restoration Plan

Further Reading

• Trout and Salmon of North America, Robert J. Behnke, Illustrated by Joseph R. Tomelleri, The Free Press, 2002, hardcover, 359 pages, ISBN 0-7432-2220-2