All About Salmon

Onchorhynchus

All About Salmon

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Pacific Salmon

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Salmon - An Amazing Survival Story
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Salmon have an amazing story to tell. They are the ultimate survivalist and provider, as shown by their incredible lifecycle. Take the time to learn WHY these remarkable fish are in the river for you to catch. HOW did they get here? WHY are they here?

Five to six million years ago salmon had fangs,

weighed 500 pounds,

and were ten feet long.

River-born fugitives, red muscled under sheathing silver,
Alive with lights of ocean's changing colors,
The range of deeps and distances through wild salt years
Has gathered the sea's plenty into your perfection.

Fullness is the long return from dark depths
Rendering toll of itself to the searching nets
Surging on to strife on brilliant gravel shallows
That opened long ago behind the failing ice.

In violence over the gravel, under the blaze of fall
Fullness spends itself, thrusting forth new life
To nurse in the stream's flow. The old life,
Used utterly, yields itself among the river rocks of home.

~By Roderick Haig-Brown

There are five species of Pacific Salmon. Each species has its own size, shape, and color variations. Generally speaking, the salmon are a shade of silver while at sea, and change into their spawning colors when they enter the river.

King Salmon, also known as Chinook Salmon, (O. tshawytscha)

Red Salmon, also known as Sockeye Salmon, (O. nerka)

Pink Salmon, also known as Humpback (Humpy) Salmon, (O. gorbuscha)

Chum Salmon, also known as Dog Salmon, (O. keta)

Silver Salmon, also known as Coho Salmon, (O. kisutch)

PLEASE visit the links below to learn more about the pacific salmon, including illustrations of each species with their color variations.

Salmon Species

Salmon Descriptions

Salmon Nation

Is it Wild? It Should Be!

Salmon - Supporting 137 Species!

What is the oldest known age of salmon

(in completed years)?

Chinook Salmon - 7 years
Sockeye Salmon - 7 years
Silver Salmon - 4 years
Chum Salmon - 6 years
Pink Salmon - 2 years