THE CHUM SALMON
■ Type: Fish
■ Diet: Omnivore
■ Average life span in the wild: 6 to 7 years
■ Size: Average length of 60 cm
■ Weight: 4.4 to 10 kg
■ Group name: Blind or Run
■ Apperance:
■ Diet: Omnivore
■ Average life span in the wild: 6 to 7 years
■ Size: Average length of 60 cm
■ Weight: 4.4 to 10 kg
■ Group name: Blind or Run
■ Apperance:
Chum salmon have the widest distribution of all the Pacific salmon, from the Californian coast to Alaska in the eastern Pacific and from Siberia to the Korean peninsula in the western Pacific. They are also found in Arctic waters, from the Beaufort Sea to the Bering Sea. Chum salmon are born in coastal rivers and streams and migrate into saltwater immediately, swimming out quite far into the open sea. Like pink salmon, chum salmon tend to spawn in small streams close to the ocean. The Chum salmon of the Yukon River are exceptional because they swim over 3000 km upriver from the Bering Sea to spawning grounds in Canada's Yukon Territory.
The back is metallic blue with infrequent dark specklings; pectoral fins, anal fins, and the tail has dark tips; spawning adults have a hooked snout with vicious-looking dog-like teeth. Chums retain their parr marks which look like dark purple stripes running vertically down their sides. Chum fry migrate out to sea from March through July, almost immediately after becoming free swimmers. They spend one to three years traveling very long distances in the ocean. These are the last salmon to spawn (November to January). They die about two weeks after they return to the freshwater to spawn. They utilize the lower tributaries of the watershed, tend to build nests called redds, really little more than protected depressions in the gravel, in shallow edges of the watercourse and at the tail end of deep pools. The female lays eggs in the redd, the male sprays sperm on the eggs, and the female covers the eggs with gravel. The female can lay up to 4000 eggs.
The back is metallic blue with infrequent dark specklings; pectoral fins, anal fins, and the tail has dark tips; spawning adults have a hooked snout with vicious-looking dog-like teeth. Chums retain their parr marks which look like dark purple stripes running vertically down their sides. Chum fry migrate out to sea from March through July, almost immediately after becoming free swimmers. They spend one to three years traveling very long distances in the ocean. These are the last salmon to spawn (November to January). They die about two weeks after they return to the freshwater to spawn. They utilize the lower tributaries of the watershed, tend to build nests called redds, really little more than protected depressions in the gravel, in shallow edges of the watercourse and at the tail end of deep pools. The female lays eggs in the redd, the male sprays sperm on the eggs, and the female covers the eggs with gravel. The female can lay up to 4000 eggs.
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⋆All info I took out of here:
- http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/species-especes/aquatic-aquatique/chum-salmon-eng.htm
- http://www.wikipedia.org/
⋆All pictures I took out of Picassa and Flickr:
- https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/view?q=denali&psc=G&filter=1
- http://www.flickr.com/search/
Special thanks to MoonShine to help to found this info.
- http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/species-especes/aquatic-aquatique/chum-salmon-eng.htm
- http://www.wikipedia.org/
⋆All pictures I took out of Picassa and Flickr:
- https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/view?q=denali&psc=G&filter=1
- http://www.flickr.com/search/
Special thanks to MoonShine to help to found this info.