Species and Habitat Outlines

Chinook Salmon
TAXONOMY

Phylum: Chordata
Class: Osteichthyes
Order: Salmoniformes
Family: Salmonidae

 

ECOLOGICAL DATA

Distribution: spawn in medium to large streams and larger rivers; extensive feeding migration in Pacific Ocean.

Habitat: spawn in Jul-Nov in Fraser River, Aug-Sep in south, Oct on Vancouver Is. and in Sep in north; eggs laid in redds in gravel; fry emerge in Mar-May; three life history strategies exist: "immediate" fry migrate directly to estuary, "ocean-type" rear in freshwater for 60-120 days before migrating seaward as smolts, and "stream-type" fry rear in river for 1-2 yr and migrate seaward as smolts; fry (33-45 mm) utilize shallow, nearshore from May-Aug/Sep, e.g. tidal channels, tide flats and eelgrass beds; rear in deeper water as they grow until late summer; smolts (8-10 cm) migrate to estuary in Jul; rear in outer estuary or deeper nearshore water until fall; juveniles migrate to ocean and spend 2-4 yr feeding; some remain in inshore waters.

Tidal elevation: fry feed with tide cycle, at high tide line and in tidal channels at ebb tide; smolts and adults feed and migrate in deeper water.

Food: fry prey on insects, amphipods, decapod larvae and calanoid copepods; juveniles eat small fish (herring, sand lance, rockfish), crustaceans (amphipods, euphausiids, cladocerans); adults eat fish and euphausiids.

Predators: fishes, birds, marine mammals and bears.

 

GROWTH RATE

Largest of Pacific salmon; mature at 3-5 yr; maximum size 147 cm and 57 kg.

FISHERY

Support valuable commercial, sport and native fisheries; 1986 commercial catch was 4420 t valued at almost $19.7 million.

REFERENCES

Fraser, F.J., P.J. Starr, and A.Y Fedorenko. 1982. A review of the chinook and coho salmon of the Fraser River. Can. Tech. Rep. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 1126: 130 p.

Healey, 1980. Utilization of the Nanaimo River estuary by juvenile chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha. Fish. Bull. 77: 653-668.

Levy, D.A., and T.G. Northcote. 1979. Juvenile salmon utilization of tidal channels in the Fraser River estuary, British Columbia. Univ. B.C. Westwater Res. Cen. Tech. Rep. 23: 70 p.

Levings, C.D. 1982. Short term use of a low tide refuge in a sandflat by juvenile chinook, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, Fraser River estuary. Can. Tech. Rep. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 1111: 33 p.

Levings, C.D. McAllister, and B.D. Chang. 1986. Differential use of the Campbell River estuary, British Columbia, by wild and hatchery-reared juvenile chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 43: 1386-1397.

Simenstad, C.A. 1983. The ecology of estuarine channels of the Pacific Northwest coast: a community profile. U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv. FWS/OBS-83/05: 81 p.

 


For more information on chinook salmon habitat utilization and life cycle - click here.

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