Chum Salmon Cool Facts

Name: The name Chum Salmon comes from the American indigenous language (Chinook Jargon) term tzum meaning marked or spotted.
Range: Chum Salmon have the broadest natural distribution of all Pacific salmon species, ranging in Asia from Korea to the Arctic coast of the USSR and west to the Lena River and Laptev Sea. In North America the historic range spans from Monterey, California north to the Arctic Coast and east to the Mackenzie River and Beaufort Sea.
Size: Adult Chum Salmon typically weigh between 8 and 15 pounds at maturity. However, the largest Chum Salmon ever documented was captured at Edie Pass, British Columbia and weighed 42 pounds (44 inches).
Diet: Juvenile Chum Salmon (pictured right) primarily eat insects as they outmigrate from streams after hatching and marine invertebrates while rearing in estuarine and near-shore habitats. Adult Chum Salmon prey on a variety of organisms in the ocean including copepods, mollusks, squid, tunicates, and other fishes.
Habitat: Chum typically spawn in the lower most sections of stream and rivers, with the most suitable areas associated with high quality gravels for redd construction and upwelling groundwaterfordevelopingembryos. Estuarine and near-shore habitats are important for rearing and growth, as juveniles do not reside in freshwater for an extended time like other salmonids. Adults widely disperse throughout the North Pacific Ocean.