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Chinook Salmon

The chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) is Alaska's state fish and is one of the most important sport and commercial fish native to the Pacific coast of North America. It is the largest of all Pacific salmon, with weights of individual fish commonly exceeding 30 pounds. A 126-pound chinook salmon taken in a fish trap near Petersburg, Alaska in 1949 is the largest on record. The largest sport-caught chinook salmon was a 97-pound fish taken in the Kenai River in 1986.

The chinook salmon has numerous local names. In Washington and Oregon, chinook salmon are called chinook, while in British Columbia they are called spring salmon. Other names are quinnat, tyee, tule, blackmouth, and king.

Range: In North America, chinook salmon range from the Monterey Bay area of California to the Chukchi Sea area of Alaska. On the Asian coast, chinook salmon occur from the Anadyr River area of Siberia southward to Hokkaido, Japan.

In Alaska, it is abundant from the southeastern panhandle to the Yukon River. Major populations return to the Yukon, Kuskokwim, Nushagak, Susitna, Kenai, Copper, Alsek, Taku, and Stikine rivers. Important runs also occur in many smaller streams.

General description: Adults are distinguished by the black irregular spotting on the back and dorsal fins and on both lobes of the caudal or tail fin. Chinook salmon also have a black pigment along the gum line which gives them the name "blackmouth" in some areas.

In the ocean, the chinook salmon is a robust, deep-bodied fish with a bluish-green coloration on the back which fades to a silvery color on the sides and white on the belly. Colors of spawning chinook salmon in fresh water range from red to copper to almost black, depending on location and degree of maturation. Males are more deeply colored than the females and also are distinguished by their "ridgeback" condition and by their hooked nose or upper jaw. Juveniles in fresh water are recognized by well-developed parr marks which are bisected by the lateral line.

Life history: Like all species of Pacific salmon, chinook salmon are anadromous. They hatch in fresh water, spend part of their life in the ocean, and then spawn in fresh water. All chinooks die after spawning. Chinook salmon may become sexually mature from their second through seventh year, and as a result, fish in any spawning run may vary greatly in size. For example, a mature 3-year-old will probably weigh less than 4 pounds, while a mature 7-year-old may exceed 50 pounds. Females tend to be older than males at maturity. In many spawning runs, males outnumber females in all but the 6- and 7-year age groups. Small chinooks that mature after spending only one winter in the ocean are commonly referred to as "jacks" and are usually males. Alaska streams normally receive a single run of chinook salmon in the period from May through July.

Chinook salmon often make extensive freshwater spawning migrations to reach their home streams on some of the larger river systems. Yukon River spawners bound for the extreme headwaters in Yukon Territory, Canada, will travel more than 2,000 river miles during a 60-day period. Chinook salmon do not feed during the freshwater spawning migration, so their condition deteriorates gradually during the spawning run as they use stored body materials for energy and for the development of reproductive products.

Each female deposits from 3,000 to 14,000 eggs in several gravel nests, or redds, which she excavates in relatively deep, moving water. In Alaska, the eggs usually hatch in late winter or early spring, depending on time of spawning and water temperature. The newly hatched fish, called alevins, live in the gravel for several weeks until they gradually absorb the food in the attached yolk sac. These juveniles, called fry, wiggle up through the gravel by early spring. In Alaska, most juvenile chinook salmon remain in fresh water until the following spring when they migrate to the ocean in their second year of life. These seaward migrants are called smolts.

Juvenile chinooks in fresh water feed on plankton, then later eat insects. In the ocean, they eat a variety of organisms including herring, pilchard, sandlance, squid, and crustaceans. Salmon grow rapidly in the ocean and often double their weight during a single summer season.

Commercial fishery and subsistence: North Pacific chinook salmon catches during the late 1970s and early 1980s averaged more than 4 million fish per year. The United States harvested the majority of the catch followed by Canada, Japan, and the USSR. Alaska's annual harvest during this period averaged about 731,000 fish per year, or about 32 percent of the North American catch. The majority of the Alaska catch is made in Southeast, Bristol Bay, and the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim areas. Fish taken commercially average about 18 pounds. The majority of the catch is made with troll gear and gillnets.

There is an excellent market for chinook salmon because of their large size and excellent table qualities. Recent catches in Alaska have brought fishers nearly $19 million per year.

Catches by subsistence fishers in Southwest and Southcentral areas from 1976 through 1986 have averaged approximately 90,000 chinook salmon. Approximately 90 percent of the subsistence harvest is taken in the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers.

Sport fishery: The chinook salmon is perhaps the most highly prized sport fish in Alaska and is extensively fished by anglers in the Southeast and Cook Inlet areas. Trolling with rigged herring is the favored method of angling in salt water, while lures and salmon eggs are used by freshwater anglers. The sport fishing harvest of chinook salmon is over 76,000 annually, with Cook Inlet and adjacent watersheds contributing over half of the catch.

Management: Unlike other salmon species, chinook salmon rear in inshore marine waters and are, therefore, available to commercial and sport fishers all year. Catches of chinook salmon in Southeast Alaska are regulated by quotas set under the Pacific Salmon Treaty. In other regions of Alaska, chinook salmon fisheries are also closely managed to ensure stocks of chinook salmon are not overharvested.

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Chum Salmon

Chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) have the widest distribution of any of the Pacific salmon. They range south to the Sacramento River in California and the island of Kyushu in the Sea of Japan. In the north they range east in the Arctic Ocean to the Mackenzie River in Canada and west to the Lena River in Siberia. Chum salmon are the most abundant commercially harvested salmon species in arctic, northwestern, and Interior Alaska, but are of relatively less importance in other areas of the state. There they are known locally as "dog salmon" and are a traditional source of dried fish for winter use.

General description: Ocean fresh chum salmon are metallic greenish-blue on the dorsal surface (top) with fine black speckles. They are difficult to distinguish from sockeye and coho salmon without examining their gills or caudal fin scale patterns. Chum have fewer but larger gillrakers than other salmon. After nearing fresh water, however, the chum salmon changes color-particularly noticeable are vertical bars of green and purple, which give them the common name, calico salmon. The males develop the typical hooked snout of Pacific salmon and very large teeth which partially account for their other name of dog salmon. The females have a dark horizontal band along the lateral line; their green and purple vertical bars are not so obvious.

Life history: Chum salmon often spawn in small side channels and other areas of large rivers where upwelling springs provide excellent conditions for egg survival. They also spawn in many of the same places as do pink salmon, i.e., small streams and intertidal zones. Some chum in the Yukon River travel over 2,000 miles to spawn in the Yukon Territory. These have the brightest color and possess the highest oil content of any chum salmon when they begin their upstream journey. Chum salmon spawning is typical of Pacific salmon with the eggs deposited in redds located primarily in upwelling spring areas of streams. Female chum may lay as many as 4,000 eggs, but fecundity typically ranges between 2,400 and 3,100 eggs.

Chum do not have a period of freshwater residence after emergence of the fry as do chinook, coho, and sockeye salmon. Chums are similar to pink salmon in this respect, except that chum fry do not move out into the ocean in the spring as quickly as pink fry. Chum fry feed on small insects in the stream and estuary before forming into schools in salt water where their diet usually consists of zooplankton. By fall they move out into the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska where they spend one or more of the winters of their 3- to 6-year lives. In southeastern Alaska most chum salmon mature at 4 years of age, although there is considerable variation in age at maturity between streams. There is also a higher percentage of chums in the northern areas of the state. Chum vary in size from 4 to over 30 pounds, but usually range from 7 to 18 pounds, with females usually smaller than males.

Noncommercial fishery: In arctic, northwestern and Interior Alaska, chum salmon remain an important year-round source of fresh and dried fish for subsistence and personal use purposes. Sport fishers generally capture chum salmon incidental to fishing for other Pacific salmon in either fresh or salt water. Statewide sport harvest usually totals fewer than 25,000 chums. After entering fresh water, chums are most often prepared as a smoked product.

Commercial fishery: In the last few years an average of 11 million chum salmon, worth over $32 million, have been caught in Alaska. Most chum are caught by purse seines and drift gillnets, but fishwheels and set gillnets harvest a portion of the catch. In many areas they have been harvested incidental to the catch of pink salmon. The development of markets for fresh and frozen chum in Japan and northern Europe has increased their demand, especially in the last decade. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has built several hatcheries primarily for chum salmon products.

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Coho Salmon

Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch (Walbaum)) also called silver salmon, are found in coastal waters of Alaska from Southeast to Point Hope on the Chukchi Sea and in the Yukon River to the Alaska-Yukon border. Coho are extremely adaptable and occur in nearly all accessible bodies of fresh water-from large transboundary watersheds to small tributaries.

General description: Adults usually weigh 8 to 12 pounds and are 24 to 30 inches long, but individuals weighing 31 pounds have been landed. Adults in salt water or newly arrived in fresh water are bright silver with small black spots on the back and on the upper lobe of the caudal fin. They can be distinguished from chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) by the lack of black spots on the lower lobe of the tail and gray gums; chinook have small black spots on both caudal lobes and they have black gums. Spawning adults of both sexes have dark backs and heads with maroon to reddish sides. The males develop a prominent hooked snout with large teeth called a kype. Juvenile coho salmon have 8 to 12 parr marks evenly distributed above and below the lateral line with the parr marks narrower than the interspaces. The adipose fin is uniformly pigmented. The anal fin has a long leading edge usually tipped with white, and all fins are frequently tinted with orange.

Life history: Coho salmon enter spawning streams from July to November, usually during periods of high runoff. Run timing has evolved to reflect the requirements of specific stocks. In some streams with barrier falls, adults arrive in July when the water is low and the falls are passable. In large rivers, adults must arrive early, as they need several weeks or months to reach headwater spawning grounds. Run timing is also regulated by the water temperature at spawning grounds: where temperatures are low and eggs develop slowly, spawners have evolved early run timing to compensate; conversely, where temperatures are warm, adults are late spawners. Adults hold in pools until they ripen, then move onto spawning grounds; spawning generally occurs at night. The female digs a nest, called a redd, and deposits 2,400 to 4,500 eggs. As the eggs are deposited, they are fertilized with sperm by the male. The eggs develop during the winter, hatch in early spring, and the embryos remain in the gravel utilizing the egg yolk until they emerge in May or June. The emergent fry occupy shallow stream margins, and, as they grow, establish territories which they defend from other salmonids. They live in ponds, lakes, and pools in streams and rivers, usually among submerged woody debris-quiet areas free of current-from which they dart out to seize drifting insects.

During the fall, juvenile coho may travel miles before locating off-channel habitat where they pass the winter free of floods. Some fish leave fresh water in the spring and rear in brackish estuarine ponds and then migrate back into fresh water in the fall. They spend one to three winters in streams and may spend up to five winters in lakes before migrating to the sea as smolt. Time at sea varies. Some males (called jacks) mature and return after only 6 months at sea at a length of about 12 inches, while most fish stay 18 months before returning as full size adults.

Little is known of the ocean migrations of coho salmon. High seas tagging shows that maturing Southeast Alaska coho move northward throughout the spring and appear to concentrate in the central Gulf of Alaska in June. They later disperse towards shore and migrate along the shoreline until they reach their stream of origin.

Commercial fishing: The commercial catch of coho salmon has increased significantly from low catches in the 1960s, reaching 6.25 million fish in 1986. About half of the catch was taken in Southeast Alaska, primarily by the troll fishery.

Sport fishing: The coho salmon is a premier sport fish and is taken in fresh and salt water from July to September. In 1986, anglers throughout Alaska took 201,000 coho salmon. In salt water they are taken by trolling or mooching (drifting) with herring or with flies or lures along shore. In fresh water they hit salmon eggs, flies, spoons, or spinners. Coho are spectacular fighters and the most acrobatic of the Pacific salmon, and on light tackle provide a thrilling and memorable fishing experience.

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Pink Salmon

The pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) is also known as the "humpback" or "humpy" because of its very pronounced, laterally flattened hump which develops on the backs of adult males before spawning. It is called the "bread and butter" fish in many Alaskan coastal fishing communities because of its importance to commercial fisheries and thus to local economies. Pink salmon also contribute substantially to the catch of sport anglers and subsistence users in Alaska. It is native to Pacific and arctic coastal waters from northern California to the Mackenzie River, Canada, and to the west from the Lena River in Siberia to Korea.

General description: The pink salmon is the smallest of the Pacific salmon found in North America with an average weight of about 3.5 to 4 pounds and average length of 20-25 inches. An adult fish returning to coastal waters is bright steely blue on top and silvery on the sides with many large black spots on the back and entire tail fin. Its scales are very small and the flesh is pink. As the fish approaches the spawning streams the bright appearance of the male is replaced by brown to black above with a white belly; females become olive green with dusky bars or patches above and a light-colored belly. By the time the male enters the spawning stream, it has developed the characteristic hump and hooked jaws. Juvenile pink salmon are entirely silvery, without the dark vertical bars, or parr marks, of the young of other salmon species.

Life history: Adult pink salmon enter Alaska spawning streams between late June and mid-October. Different races or runs with differing spawning times frequently occur in adjacent streams or even within the same stream. Most pink salmon spawn within a few miles of the coast and spawning within the intertidal zone or the mouth of streams is very common. Shallow riffles where flowing water breaks over coarse gravel or cobble-size rock and the downstream ends of pools are favored spawning areas. The female pink salmon carries 1,500 to 2,000 eggs depending on her size. She digs a nest, or redd, with her tail and releases the eggs into the nest. They are immediately fertilized by one or more males and then covered by further digging action of the female. The process is commonly repeated several times until all the female's eggs have been released. After spawning, both males and females soon die, usually within two weeks.

Sometime during early to mid-winter, eggs hatch. The alevins, or young fry, feed on the attached yolk sac material continuing to grow and develop. In late winter or spring, the fry swim up out of the gravel and migrate downstream into salt water. The emergence and outmigration of fry is heaviest during hours of darkness and usually lasts for several weeks before all the fry have emerged.

Following entry into salt water, the juvenile pink salmon move along the beaches in dense schools near the surface, feeding on plankton, larval fishes, and occasional insects. Predation is heavy on the very small, newly emerged fry, but growth is rapid. By fall, at an age of about 1 year, the juvenile pink salmon are 4 to 6 inches long and are moving into the ocean feeding grounds in the Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands areas. High seas tag-and-recapture experiments have revealed that pink salmon originating from specific coastal areas have characteristic distributions at sea which are overlapping, nonrandom, and nearly identical from year to year. The ranges of Alaska pink salmon at sea and pink salmon from Asia, British Columbia, and Washington overlap each other.

Pink salmon mature in two years which means that odd-year and even-year populations are essentially unrelated. Frequently in a particular stream the other odd-year or even-year cycle will predominate, although in some streams both odd- and even-year pink salmon are about equally abundant. Occasionally cycle dominance will shift, and the previously weak cycle will become most abundant.

Commercial fishing: In the early years, fixed and floating fish traps were employed extensively to catch pink salmon; such traps were prohibited following statehood in 1959. Now most pink salmon are taken with purse seines and drift or set gillnets. Lesser numbers are taken with troll gear or beach seines. The average annual Alaska harvest since 1959 is 45.1 million pink salmon. The ten-year average harvest (1983-1992) is 77.4 million pink salmon. In 1991 the Alaska harvest represented about 96 percent of the total North American harvest.

Pink salmon fisheries are important in all coastal regions of Alaska south of Kotzebue Sound. Commercial canning and salting of pink salmon began in the late 1800s and expanded steadily until about 1920. Runs declined markedly during the 1940s and 1950s; however, intensive effort is being made to rebuild and enhance those runs through hatcheries, fish ladders, and improved fisheries management.

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Sockeye Salmon

The sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka), often referred to as "red" or "blueback" salmon, occurs in the North Pacific and Arctic oceans and associated freshwater systems. This species ranges south as far as the Klamath River in California and northern Hokkaido in Japan, to as far north as far as Bathurst Inlet in the Canadian Arctic and the Anadyr River in Siberia. Aboriginal people considered sockeye salmon to be an important food source and either ate them fresh or dried them for winter use. Today sockeye salmon support one of the most important commercial fisheries on the Pacific coast of North America, are increasingly sought after in recreational fisheries, and remain an important mainstay of many subsistence users.

General description: Sockeye salmon can be distinguished from chinook, coho, and pink salmon by the lack of large, black spots and from chum salmon by the number and shape of gill rakers on the first gill arch. Sockeye salmon have 28 to 40 long, slender, rough or serrated closely set rakers on the first arch. Chum salmon have 19 to 26 short, stout, smooth rakers.

Immature and prespawning sockeye salmon are elongate, fusiform, and somewhat laterally compressed. They are metallic green blue on the back and top of the head, iridescent silver on the sides, and white or silvery on the belly. Some fine black speckling may occur on the back, but large spots are absent. Juveniles, while in fresh water, have the same general coloration as immature sockeye salmon in the ocean, but are less iridescent. Juveniles also have dark, oval parr marks on their sides. These parr marks are short-less than the diameter of the eye-and rarely extend below the lateral line.

Breeding males develop a humped back and elongated, hooked jaws filled with sharp caniniform teeth. Both sexes turn brilliant to dark red on the back and sides, pale to olive-green on the head and upper jaw, and white on the lower jaw.

Life history: Sockeye salmon are anadromous: they live in the sea and enter freshwater systems to spawn. After hatching, juvenile sockeye salmon may spend up to four years in fresh water before migrating to sea as silvery smolt weighing only a few ounces. They grow quickly in the sea, usually reaching a size of 4 to 8 pounds after one to four years. Mature sockeye salmon travel thousands of miles from ocean feeding areas to spawn in the same freshwater system where they were born. Little is known about the navigation mechanisms or cues they use on the high seas, although some evidence suggests that they may be able to use cues from the earth's magnetic field. Once near their natal freshwater system, sockeye salmon use olfactory cues to guide them home. Like all Pacific salmon, sockeye salmon die within a few weeks after spawning.

Maturing sockeye salmon return to freshwater systems from the ocean during the summer months, and most populations show little variation in their arrival time on the spawning grounds from year to year. Freshwater systems with lakes produce the greatest number of sockeye salmon. Spawning usually occurs in rivers, streams, and upwelling areas along lake beaches. The female selects the spawning site, digs a nest (redd) with her tail, and deposits eggs in the downstream portion of the redd as one or more males swim beside her and fertilize the eggs as they are extruded. After each spawning act, the female covers the eggs by dislodging gravel at the upstream end of the redd with her tail. A female usually deposits about five batches of eggs in a redd. Depending upon her size, a female produces from 2,000 to 4,500 eggs.

Eggs hatch during the winter, and the young sac-fry, or alevins, remain in the gravel, living off the material stored in their yolk sacs, until early spring. At this time they emerge from the gravel as fry and move into rearing areas. In systems with lakes, juveniles usually spend one to three years in fresh water before migrating to the ocean in the spring as smolts. However, in systems without lakes, many juveniles migrate to the ocean soon after emerging from the gravel.

Sockeye salmon return to their natal stream to spawn after spending one to four years in the ocean. Mature sockeye salmon that have spent only one year in the ocean are called jacks and are, almost without exception, males. Once in the ocean, sockeye salmon grow quickly. While returning adults usually weigh between 4 and 8 pounds, weights in excess of 15 pounds have been reported.

In some areas, populations of sockeye salmon remain in fresh water all their lives. This landlocked form of sockeye salmon, called "kokanee," reaches a much smaller maximum size than the anadromous form and rarely grows to be over 14 inches long.

Food habits: While in fresh water, juvenile sockeye salmon feed mainly upon zooplankton (such as ostracods, cladocerans, and copepods), benthic amphipods, and insects. In the ocean, sockeye salmon continue to feed upon zooplankton (such as copepods, euphausids, ostracods, and crustacean larvae), but also prey upon larval and small adult fishes (such as sand lance), and occasionally squid.

Fisheries: The largest harvest of sockeye salmon in the world occurs in the Bristol Bay area of southwestern Alaska where 10 million to more than 30 million sockeye salmon may be caught each year during a short, intensive fishery lasting only a few weeks. Relatively large harvests of 1 million to 6 million sockeye salmon are also taken in Cook Inlet, Prince William Sound, and Chignik Lagoon. All commercial Pacific salmon fisheries in Alaska are under a limited entry system which restricts the number of vessels allowed to participate. Most sockeye salmon are harvested with gillnets either drifted from a vessel or set with one end on the shore, some are captured with purse seines, and a relatively small number are caught with troll gear in the southeastern portion of the state.

Sockeye salmon are the preferred species for canning due to the rich orange-red color of their flesh. Today, however, more than half of the sockeye salmon catch is sold frozen rather than canned. Canned sockeye salmon is marketed primarily in the United Kingdom and the United States while most frozen sockeye salmon is purchased by Japan. Sockeye salmon roe is also valuable. It is salted and marketed in Japan.

There is also a growing sport fishery for sockeye salmon throughout the state. Probably the best known sport fishery with the greatest participation occurs during the return of sockeye salmon to the Russian River on the Kenai Peninsula. Other popular areas include the Kasilof River on the Kenai Peninsula as well as the various river systems within Bristol Bay.

Subsistence users harvest sockeye salmon in many areas of the state. The greatest subsistence harvest of sockeye salmon probably occurs in the Bristol Bay area where participants use set gillnets. In other areas of the state, sockeye salmon may be taken for subsistence use in fishwheels. Most of the subsistence harvest consists of prespawning sockeye salmon, but a relatively small number of postspawning sockeye salmon are also taken. Personal use fisheries have also been established to make use of any sockeye salmon surplus to spawning needs, subsistence uses, and commercial and sport harvests. Personal use fisheries have occurred in Bristol Bay, where participants use set gillnets, as well as in Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound, where participants also use dip nets.

While most sockeye salmon production in Alaska results from the spawning of wild populations, some runs have been developed or enhanced through human effort. Although artificial propagation of sockeye salmon has proven difficult, notable success has been achieved at state-maintained hatcheries located on the upper Copper River in Prince William Sound and the Kasilof River on the Kenai Peninsula. A fish ladder installed on the Fraser River on Kodiak Island has also served to enhance sockeye salmon returns.

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