Alaska Salmon Research Paper

The salmon of Alaska have been here for millions of years and over those years five specific and distinct species have evolved and developed. Theses five species are Chinook, Chum, Coho, Pink and Sockeye salmon (Morrow, 2013). These salmon all have very different looks and different timetables of life. However, they all share the same main lifecycle going from egg, to alevin, to fry, to parr, to smolt then on to their adult stage (Marrow, 2013). They have a difficult life and only a few eggs of thousands each female lays survive to adulthood. The salmon that survive are a crucial part of Alaska’s ecosystem and food chain. The first type of salmon is the Chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) also known commonly as the King salmon. They range in weight from about thirty pounds up to around one hundred pounds, this making them earn their given name to be the largest of the Alaskan salmon. They are characterized with their black mouths, blue-green and silver bodies, white bellies and the black spotting that runs through their backs. Chinooks generally spawn in late fall after their one to eight years at sea. When Chinooks are spawning they turn a deep coppery red color (Vandervalk, 2015). These salmon live throughout
Pink salmon are three to five pounds in weight and during time of spawning in fall is when they are most characterized by their name “humpy”, they turn a dark brown to green color and their bellies turn whitish and the males get huge humps on their dorsal side (Vandervalk, 2015). Pink salmon are most commonly used for canning and they are the smallest of the five species of Alaskan salmon. Pink salmon have one of the shorter life spans, only spending about two years at sea before returning to fresh water and spawning. The most common time for Pink salmon fishing is May to