Silver Salmon

coho

 or silver salmon

Species (Oncorhynchus kisutch) of salmon prized for food and sport that ranges from the Bering Sea to Japan and the Salinas River of Monterey Bay, Cal. It weighs about 10 lbs (4.5 kg) and is recognized by the small spots on the back and upper tail-fin lobe. Young cohos stay in freshwater for about one year before entering North Pacific waters; they mature in about three years. Some landlocked populations spend their entire lives in freshwater. Cohos were successfully transplanted in the 1970s into Lake Michigan as a game fish.

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Silver Salmon 

(Oncorhynchus kisutch), a migratory fish of the genus of Pacific salmon. It usually measures 60–65 cm long and weighs 3–4 kg; sometimes it can weigh as much as 14 kg.

The coloration is silvery; the back is bluish with small black spots. During the mating season the fish is dark crimson.

The silver salmon is distributed in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. In the USSR it is found from the Amur and Sakhalin to the Anadyr’ River. It spawns in autumn and winter, approximately 5,000 eggs each time. The young live one or two years in fresh water; then they descend to the sea, where they grow quickly, reaching sexual maturity in 15–16 months. The silver salmon is of commercial significance; it is valued more than the dog salmon (keta).

REFERENCE

Nikol’skii, G. V. Chastnaia ikhtiologiia, 3rd ed. Moscow, 1971.