Salmon

Salmon

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This article is about a particular

kind of fish. For the food, see
Salmon as food. For other uses, see
Salmon (disambiguation).

Salmon (/ˈsæmǝn/; pl.: salmon) is

the common name for several
commercially important species of
euryhaline ray-finned fish from the
genera Salmo and Oncorhynchus of
the family Salmonidae, native to
tributaries of the North Atlantic
(Salmo) and North Pacific
(Oncorhynchus) basins. Other
closely related fish in the same
family include trout, char, grayling,
whitefish, lenok and taimen, all
coldwater fish of the subarctic and
cooler temperate regions with some
sporadic endorheic populations in
Central Asia.
Salmon
Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar
Scientific classification

Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Actinopterygii
Order:
Salmoniformes
Family:
Salmonidae
Subfamily:
Salmoninae
Groups included
● †Eosalmo driftwoodensis
Wilson, 1977
● Oncorhynchus gorbuscha
(Walbaum, 1792)
● Oncorhynchus keta
(Walbaum, 1792)
● Oncorhynchus kisutch
(Walbaum, 1792)
● Oncorhynchus masou
(Brevoort, 1856)
● Oncorhynchus nerka
(Walbaum, 1792)
 (Walbaum, 1792)
● Oncorhynchus tshawytscha
(Walbaum, 1792)
● Salmo salar Linnaeus, 1758
Cladistically included but
traditionally excluded taxa
all other Oncorhynchus and Salmo
species
Salmon are typically anadromous:
they hatch in the shallow gravel
beds of freshwater headstreams
and spend their juvenile years in
rivers, lakes and freshwater
wetlands, migrate to the ocean as
adults and live like sea fish, then
return to their freshwater birthplace
to reproduce. However, populations
of several species are restricted to
fresh waters (i.e. landlocked)
throughout their lives. Folklore has
it that the fish return to the exact
stream where they themselves
hatched to spawn, and tracking
studies have shown this to be
mostly true. A portion of a returning
salmon run may stray and spawn in
different freshwater systems; the
percent of straying depends on the
species of salmon.[1] Homing
behavior has been shown to depend
on olfactory memory.[2][3]
Salmon are important food fish and
are intensively farmed in many parts
of the world,[4] with Norway being
the world's largest producer of
farmed salmon, followed by Chile.
[5] They are also highly prized
game fish for recreational fishing,
by both freshwater and saltwater
anglers. Many species of salmon
have since been introduced and
naturalized into non-native
environments such as the Great
Lakes of North America, Patagonia
in South America and South Island
of New Zealand.[6]