Keta Salmon

Quick Take

• The keta salmon's spawning transformation is so extreme that it barely looks like the same fish, and one detail in particular is genuinely unsettling. See the spawning changes →
• Every keta salmon is guaranteed to die, and what its corpse does next is the key to its offspring's survival. Discover the life cycle →
• The 'dog salmon' nickname sounds like an insult, but the reason behind it reveals something unexpected about the male's biology. Explore the male's biology →
• Keta salmon caviar rivals a far more prestigious and expensive delicacy, and most people overlook its sustainability advantage. Discover the caviar details →

Call it the keta, chum, dog, or silverbrite salmon, this medium-sized member of the Salmonidae family isn’t as majestic as the Chinook and doesn’t change its look as spectacularly as the sockeye. Yet it is a worthy fish that features in many recipes and whose meat is high in healthy omega-3 fatty acids.

Four Amazing Facts About the Keta Salmon

• Wild keta are cold-water fish and prefer water that’s between 32 and 75.2 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Keta salmon are anadromous, which means they can live in both salt and fresh water.
• The keta salmon always dies after it spawns.

Evolution and Origins

The chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta), recognized as dog salmon or keta salmon, belongs to the anadromous salmonid fish group within the Oncorhynchus genus (Pacific salmon).

It originates from the coastal rivers of the North Pacific and the Beringian Arctic. This species is frequently sold under the trade name “silverbrite salmon” in North America.

The assortment of salmon species found in Alaska — namely chinook, coho, sockeye, chum, and pink — is thought to have originated from a shared ancestor with steelhead, which is also referred to as rainbow trout. These contemporary Pacific salmon varieties have an extensive history, with their ancestral lineage diverging around 10 million years ago, with modern species evolving over at least 6 million years.

Classification and Scientific Name

The scientific name of the keta or silverbrite salmon is Oncorhynchus keta. The genus name comes from the Greek words ónkos, which means “lump” or “bend,” and rhúnkhos, which means “snout.” This describes the hooked beak that the male salmon gets during the breeding season. Keta is a Russian word that is in turn derived from Evenki, a language spoken in eastern Siberia.

Appearance

The keta salmon is a torpedo-shaped fish with a moderately compressed body and shimmering bluish-green scales with black speckles when not in the breeding season. It grows to an average of 24 inches with a typical weight of 6 to 15 pounds, though some individuals can reach up to 45 pounds. The fish has 10 to 14 soft rays on its back, 13 to 17 soft anal rays, and an emarginate tail fin.

When they’re ready to spawn, the males turn dark olive green or black on their backs. The rest of their body is grayish-red and tiger-striped with black and red, and they have a streak along their side that looks very much like a bleeding gash left by a switchblade. The flesh, as with many salmon, is bright pinkish-orange and high in healthy omega-3 fatty acids.

Keta Salmon vs. Pink Salmon

The pink salmon is also called the humpback salmon because of the hump the fish develops during the spawning season. It is smaller than the keta salmon and is, in fact, the smallest of the North American Pacific salmon. They are more brilliantly silver than the keta, and their flesh is pinker in color.

Though the looks of both males and females change greatly during the breeding period, pink males not only have a notable hump but also lack the red slash that’s prominent on the side of the keta salmon. Wild Alaskan keta salmon are the first to spawn, followed by pink salmon. The pink salmon lives for two years, another thing that differentiates them from the keta, which can live for three to six years.

Distribution, Population, and Habitat

The keta salmon is found in the northern Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea, the Alaskan Arctic, and as far south as San Diego. It’s also found in the waters off Korea and Japan. The population is most likely in the millions, as millions of pounds of fish are harvested in Alaska alone.

The fish’s habitat changes according to its stage of life. The fish are born in intertidal zones and cold, freshwater streams with sandy or pebbly bottoms, either in late fall through winter or in summer.

In the spring and summer, they head down to the ocean, where they stay near the coast until they are large enough to head out to the open waters. Three or four years later, they famously return to the place of their birth to spawn.

Predators and Prey

Bears gather around streams to pluck these salmon as they struggle to their spawning grounds, and eagles are seen eating their dead bodies after they’ve spawned. Other animals that eat the silverbrite salmon are killer whales, seals, sea lions, and shorebirds. Stonefly larvae, which also hatch in freshwater streams, sometimes make a meal of salmon hatchlings.

Prey of these fish includes smaller fish, squid, mollusks, copepods, comb jellies, plankton, and tunicates such as sea squirts. Juveniles eat insects before they turn to larger prey.

Reproduction and Lifespan

The dog salmon endures one of the longest migrations of any salmon species. Once it has finally returned to the stream where it was born, the female digs a hole that’s about 3 feet around and 1.6 feet deep, called a redd. The male and female hover over the redd, vibrating and releasing eggs and sperm.

The female then covers the nest. She digs another redd if she mates with another male. She may spawn two or three times, and the eggs hatch after about two to four months. The larvae are about 0.63 inches long and begin their migration back to the ocean when they’re between 1 and 1.77 inches long.

After they spawn, the parents die. Their decaying bodies add nutrients to the water and support the growth of their offspring.

Fishing and Cooking

The keta salmon is a choice fish when it comes to cooking. The taste of the fish is delicate and mild, and recipes call for it to be poached, pan-fried, baked, broiled, steamed, and eaten raw as sushi or sashimi. The roe, or caviar, of the salmon is also prized.

Salmon caviar can be distinguished from the caviar of sturgeons because it is red and the eggs are larger. As chum salmon are more plentiful than most species of sturgeon, salmon caviar can be considered more sustainable. Current prices for keta (chum) salmon are typically around $1 to $5 per pound wholesale, though specialty products or prepared fillets may cost more.

Commercial fisheries catch chum salmon using gill nets and purse seiners. Recreational fishermen use light tackle for saltwater and fly tackle for freshwater, though, like most Pacific salmon, the chum is usually fished in the ocean since it doesn’t eat when it returns to spawn.

Population

Although the keta salmon has not been formally evaluated, its population is safely in the millions. The Alaskan population alone is probably 91 million fish. However, some populations are considered endangered, and different areas have different rules and regulations regarding harvesting fish.