Chinook Salmon

🗺️ Habitat

Born in cold freshwater rivers from California to Alaska and across the Pacific to Asia. Migrates to the Pacific Ocean, then returns to freshwater to spawn and die.

🔍 How to Identify Chinook Salmon

• 1Largest Pacific salmon with robust, heavy body
• 2Black spots on back and both lobes of tail
• 3Dark (black) gums — a key distinguishing feature
• 4Reddish flesh in most populations (some have white flesh)
• 5During spawning, turns olive to dark red and males develop a hooked jaw (kype)

🍽️ Diet

Juveniles eat insects and small crustaceans; adults eat herring, anchovies, and other fish in the ocean

💡 Fun Facts About Chinook Salmon

• ★Chinook salmon do not feed after entering freshwater to spawn — they rely on stored fat reserves
• ★A single female chinook can lay up to 14,000 eggs in a gravel nest called a "redd"
• ★After spawning, their bodies decompose and provide vital nutrients to the entire forest ecosystem
• ★Orcas (killer whales) in the Pacific Northwest depend on chinook salmon for over 80% of their diet
• ★The chinook salmon is the state fish of Oregon and Alaska

🛡️ Conservation Status

Varies by population — some are listed as endangered (Sacramento River winter run), others are abundant

🔗 Related Species