Chinook salmon

About this species

The Chinook salmon is the largest and most valuable species of Pacific salmon. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other vernacular names for the species include king salmon, quinnat salmon, tsumen, spring salmon, blackmouth, and tyee salmon. The scientific species name is based on the Russian common name chavycha (чавыча).

Text from the Wikipedia article “Chinook salmon”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 912 records
February: 559 records
March: 505 records
April: 735 records
May: 7,508 records
June: 4,622 records
July: 2,602 records
August: 1,365 records
September: 3,040 records
October: 4,639 records
November: 4,294 records
December: 1,657 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 2–112 m · Deepest record: 1,592.6 m

0–10 m: 59 records
10–20 m: 27 records
20–30 m: 19 records
30–40 m: 6 records
40–50 m: 3 records
50–60 m: 2 records
60–70 m: 1 records
70–80 m: 3 records
80–90 m: 3 records
90–100 m: 1 records
100–110 m: 0 records
110+ m: 16 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 3–13 °C

2–4 °C: 8 records
4–6 °C: 16 records
6–8 °C: 10 records
8–10 °C: 20 records
10–12 °C: 354 records
12–14 °C: 27 records

Photos

(c) Owen Strickland, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Owen Strickland · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Pierre Tellier, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Rob Foster, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Jason Alexander, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Nancy Tulloch, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Dominic, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Jenny Saito, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Chinook salmon, King salmon, Spring salmon, Chinook, king salmon, King salmon, Spring salmon, Pickled salmon, Quinnat Salmon, spring salmon, Tyee, Tyee Salmon

Names in 5 more languages

German: Königslachs, Pazifik Köningslachs, Quinnat
Spanish: salmón boquinegra, Salmon chinook, Salmón chinook, salmon real, Salmón real
French: saumon chinook, Saumon chinook, saumon quinnat, saumon royal, Saumon royal, saumon royal du Pacifique
Japanese: Masunosuke, マスノスケ
Simplified Chinese: 帝王鮭

Other scientific names: Oncorhynchus chouicha, Oncorhynchus cooperi, Oncorhynchus tschawytscha, Oncorhynchus tshawytsha, Salmo cooperi, Salmo orientalis, Salmo quinnat, Salmo richardi, Salmo richardii, Salmo tschawytscha, Salmo tshawytscha, Salmo warreni

Similar species

Chum salmon
Oncorhynchus keta
Rainbow trout
Oncorhynchus mykiss
Kokanee
Oncorhynchus nerka
Cherry salmon
Oncorhynchus masou

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
251,591 open-data records from 1897 to 2025.
Species data updated November 5, 2026.