08-26-2004, 01:48 AM
Fish of the Week: Chum Salmon
![[Image: schum.jpg]](http://i.timeinc.net/fieldstream/images_small/schum.jpg)
Thanks to Field and Stream Online SALMON, CHUM Oncorhynchus keta.
Other names: calico salmon, dog salmon, fall salmon, autumn salmon, chum, keta; French: saumon keta; Japanese: sake, shake.
The late spawning run of the chum salmon severely affects its utilization as a sportfish, and is generally caught when anglers are fishing for other Pacific salmon. In Arctic, northwestern, and interior Alaska, this member of the Salmonidae family is an important year-round source of fresh and dried fish for subsistence and personal use purposes, although elsewhere its flesh is not favored for human consumption, and in general it is not as popular or as desirable as other Pacific salmon. The frequently used name dog salmon, is reported to come from the fact the most common use for aboriginals was in feeding to their dogs.
The flesh is creamy white or pinkish to yellowish and the lowest of all the salmons in fat content; it is sold fresh, frozen, dried/salted, smoked, and canned. After entering freshwater, chum salmon are most often prepared as a smoked product. The chum was formerly commercially cultured in Russia and used for dog food in Canada. The development of markets for fresh and frozen chum in Japan and northern Europe has increased their demand.
Identification. In the ocean, the slender, somewhat compressed, chum salmon is metallic greenish-blue on the back, silvery on the sides with a fine black speckling on the upper sides and back, but without distinct black spots. Spawning males turn dark olive or grayish with blood red coloring and vertical bars of green and purple reaching up the sides, giving the fish its "calico" appearance; it develops the typical hooked snout of Pacific salmon, and the tips of the anal and pelvic fins are often white. The breeding male also develops distinctly large front teeth, which is another explanation for why it is called dog salmon. The color of spawning females is essentially the same as that of the male but is less vivid, with a dark horizontal band along the lateral line. Young fish are exceptionally slender, with 6 to 14 narrow, short parr marks along the sides, located mostly above the lateral line.
The chum salmon is difficult to distinguish from the sockeye and coho salmon of similar size without examining gills or caudal fin scale patterns; the chum salmon has fewer but larger gillrakers than other salmon. The sockeye salmon also lacks the white marks on the fins, and the chum salmon is generally larger than the sockeye.
Size/Age. The chum salmon varies in size from 4 to over 30 pounds, but the average weight is about 10 to 15 pounds, with females usually smaller than males. They can reach 40 inches in length. The all-tackle world record is a 35-pounder from British Columbia. It may live as long as 7 years.
Distribution. Chum salmon are the most widely distributed of the Pacific salmon, native to the Pacific and Arctic Oceans, the Bering Sea, the Sea of Japan, and the Okhotsk Sea. They range south to about the Sacramento River in California and to 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. In the Mackenzie, it travels all the way to the mouth of the Hay River and to the rapids below Forth Smith on the Slave River, entering both Great Bear and Great Slave Lakes and traveling through the Northwest Territories to the edge of Alberta.
Life History/Behavior. The chum salmon is an anadromous fish; with the exception of a few landlocked populations, chum salmon inhabit both ocean environments and coastal streams. Spawning takes place at ages 2 to 7, most commonly at age 4 and at a weight of 5 to 10 pounds. Like pink salmon, chum salmon are sometimes called "autumn salmon" or "fall salmon" because they are among the last salmon in the season to take their spawning run, entering river mouths after mid-June but reaching spawning grounds as late as November or December. Occasionally there is one run of chum salmon in summer and another in fall in the same river, and with summer-spawn fish being smaller and less likely to swim far upstream. In general they are not strong leapers, swimming upstream only as far as the first major barrier, though some fish in the Yukon River have been known to travel over 2,000 miles to spawn in the Yukon Territory. Chum salmon often spawn in the same places as pink salmon, such as small streams and intertidal zones and in small side channels. Eggs are deposited in redds dug by females in gravel riffles, with numbers reaching as many as 4,000 but averaging 2,400 to 3,100. The female guards the nest for a few days, then both sexes die.
Chum salmon enter streams in an advanced state of sexual maturity and thus do not stay in freshwater as long as chinook, coho, and sockeye salmon, remaining for perhaps 2 or 3 weeks. Their fry do not move out to sea as quickly as pink salmon fry in the spring, moving to saltwater estuaries in schools, remaining close to shore for a few months, and waiting until fall to move into the ocean. Chum salmon are known to hybridize naturally with pink salmon.
Food. Juvenile chum salmon in freshwater feed on plankton, then later eat insects. In the ocean, they eat a variety of organisms, including herring, pilchard, sandlance, squid, and crustaceans. Adults cease feeding in freshwater.
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Thanks to Field and Stream Online SALMON, CHUM Oncorhynchus keta.
Other names: calico salmon, dog salmon, fall salmon, autumn salmon, chum, keta; French: saumon keta; Japanese: sake, shake.
The late spawning run of the chum salmon severely affects its utilization as a sportfish, and is generally caught when anglers are fishing for other Pacific salmon. In Arctic, northwestern, and interior Alaska, this member of the Salmonidae family is an important year-round source of fresh and dried fish for subsistence and personal use purposes, although elsewhere its flesh is not favored for human consumption, and in general it is not as popular or as desirable as other Pacific salmon. The frequently used name dog salmon, is reported to come from the fact the most common use for aboriginals was in feeding to their dogs.
The flesh is creamy white or pinkish to yellowish and the lowest of all the salmons in fat content; it is sold fresh, frozen, dried/salted, smoked, and canned. After entering freshwater, chum salmon are most often prepared as a smoked product. The chum was formerly commercially cultured in Russia and used for dog food in Canada. The development of markets for fresh and frozen chum in Japan and northern Europe has increased their demand.
Identification. In the ocean, the slender, somewhat compressed, chum salmon is metallic greenish-blue on the back, silvery on the sides with a fine black speckling on the upper sides and back, but without distinct black spots. Spawning males turn dark olive or grayish with blood red coloring and vertical bars of green and purple reaching up the sides, giving the fish its "calico" appearance; it develops the typical hooked snout of Pacific salmon, and the tips of the anal and pelvic fins are often white. The breeding male also develops distinctly large front teeth, which is another explanation for why it is called dog salmon. The color of spawning females is essentially the same as that of the male but is less vivid, with a dark horizontal band along the lateral line. Young fish are exceptionally slender, with 6 to 14 narrow, short parr marks along the sides, located mostly above the lateral line.
The chum salmon is difficult to distinguish from the sockeye and coho salmon of similar size without examining gills or caudal fin scale patterns; the chum salmon has fewer but larger gillrakers than other salmon. The sockeye salmon also lacks the white marks on the fins, and the chum salmon is generally larger than the sockeye.
Size/Age. The chum salmon varies in size from 4 to over 30 pounds, but the average weight is about 10 to 15 pounds, with females usually smaller than males. They can reach 40 inches in length. The all-tackle world record is a 35-pounder from British Columbia. It may live as long as 7 years.
Distribution. Chum salmon are the most widely distributed of the Pacific salmon, native to the Pacific and Arctic Oceans, the Bering Sea, the Sea of Japan, and the Okhotsk Sea. They range south to about the Sacramento River in California and to 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. In the Mackenzie, it travels all the way to the mouth of the Hay River and to the rapids below Forth Smith on the Slave River, entering both Great Bear and Great Slave Lakes and traveling through the Northwest Territories to the edge of Alberta.
Life History/Behavior. The chum salmon is an anadromous fish; with the exception of a few landlocked populations, chum salmon inhabit both ocean environments and coastal streams. Spawning takes place at ages 2 to 7, most commonly at age 4 and at a weight of 5 to 10 pounds. Like pink salmon, chum salmon are sometimes called "autumn salmon" or "fall salmon" because they are among the last salmon in the season to take their spawning run, entering river mouths after mid-June but reaching spawning grounds as late as November or December. Occasionally there is one run of chum salmon in summer and another in fall in the same river, and with summer-spawn fish being smaller and less likely to swim far upstream. In general they are not strong leapers, swimming upstream only as far as the first major barrier, though some fish in the Yukon River have been known to travel over 2,000 miles to spawn in the Yukon Territory. Chum salmon often spawn in the same places as pink salmon, such as small streams and intertidal zones and in small side channels. Eggs are deposited in redds dug by females in gravel riffles, with numbers reaching as many as 4,000 but averaging 2,400 to 3,100. The female guards the nest for a few days, then both sexes die.
Chum salmon enter streams in an advanced state of sexual maturity and thus do not stay in freshwater as long as chinook, coho, and sockeye salmon, remaining for perhaps 2 or 3 weeks. Their fry do not move out to sea as quickly as pink salmon fry in the spring, moving to saltwater estuaries in schools, remaining close to shore for a few months, and waiting until fall to move into the ocean. Chum salmon are known to hybridize naturally with pink salmon.
Food. Juvenile chum salmon in freshwater feed on plankton, then later eat insects. In the ocean, they eat a variety of organisms, including herring, pilchard, sandlance, squid, and crustaceans. Adults cease feeding in freshwater.
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