Fish of the Columbia River
Chinook salmon
Oncorhynchus tshawytschatshawytscha = the vernacular name in Kamchatka
Body
Adult length is 20 to 55 inches (50.8 to 140 cm) and weight is 1 to 100 pounds (0.5 to 45.4 kg).
Food
Types of food eaten vary with the season and the size of the fish. In general, small fish eat organisms such as Daphnia and insect larvae, while large fish eat larger items such as leeches, large insets, molluscs, and fish.
Young fish either go to sea very soon after emerging from the gravel of the spawning bed or remain in fresh water for varying times up to 15 months. The major growth takes place at sea, the fish becoming mature in from three to seven years. Chinook salmon commonly spawn in the larger streams or larger tributaries of streams. The spawning season varies considerably from stream to stream, depending upon such conditions as distance from sea to the spawning grounds. Chinook usually appear in streams in August and September, and egg-alying takes place during October and November.
Chinook salmon are of great value as both food and sport.
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