Chinook salmon

From Great Lakes Wiki

Chinook salmon

Scientific: Oncorhynchus tshawytscha

Also known as: tyee, spring salmon, quinnat, and king salmon

Lives in these Great Lakes: All of them

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Picture and information reference from: http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/greatlakesfish/framefish.html (Click on Chinook Salmon)

The biggest Chinook salmon recorded for the Great Lakes was 47.5 inches. The longest fish for the Great Lakes was 44 lbs 15 oz. However, there was a 97 lbs 4 oz caught in Alaska. Obviously, these are very large fish. They are sought after because of their size to be placed as prizes or trophies. Because of this (and their size) they are often called King salmon. The Chinook do not like the winter very much. They leave the lake shores. It is debatable where they go. Some say they go deeper into the water where it is cold. Others say they just move further off shore. They have trouble breeding because they don’t have the right streams attached to the great lakes. To solve this they continually add new Chinooks to the lakes. Fisheries really like the Chinooks because they don’t take long to breed. After half dozen months of hatching they can be released into the lakes. Cohos, for example, take 14-16 months before they can be released. The also eat a lot of Alewives that have recently exploded.

--Maurerd 16:19, 28 Nov 2006 (EST)