How to identify Pacific Salmon - Part 2 Beta

0:01 [Music] chapter 2 how to identify Pacific salmon Species part two in this section we will learn how to identify several other species of salmon we call these non-target species because we generally won't ask you to take biological samples from them the species we will learn to identify are shinook coo Chum and steel head in addition we will have a chance to review and to practice our skills for identifying all of the described species and there will be a short quiz at the

0:49 end to begin let's learn how to identify shinuk salmon shinook are the largest species of salmon that you will see on average they could weigh 10 to 20 lb and are often around 80 to 90 cm long but they can be much smaller or larger the first thing you notice about the shinook salmon may be its size then there are the spots on its back and tail there are spots on both the upper and lower portion of the tail and the spots on the back have an irregular shape keep in mind that the spots on the tail of the shnook are smaller than on the tail of the pink salmon next take a look at the mouth shinook have large sharp teeth and black

1:34 mouth with black gums this is why they are also called Blackmouth salmon in their spawning phase shinook salmon become a darker color ranging from dark red to bluish green males develop a kipe and a bit of a hump the Jacks of this species are easy to confuse with pink salmon Jacks are males that return to the river early because they are younger they are smaller and are close in size to pink salmon take a look at the pink salmon along with the shinook Jack they look quite similar but the smaller spots on the tail the black mouth and the irregular shape of the spots on the back of the shinook help us to properly identify

2:22 it now let's turn our attention to coo salmon coo salmon will mostly weigh around 6 to 12 lbs or sometimes times more and will often be around 50 to 70 cm long coo are often confused with shinook because they can be close in size and they both have spots on their backs however coo tend to have fewer spots on their backs than shinook and if they have spots on their tails the spots are only on the upper half they have large teeth and dark mouths but unlike shinuk they have light or even white gums the color of Coo's gums is the best way to tell them apart from shinuk salmon coo have a square shaped tail which is not as deeply forked as some other species and they have a thick

3:09 coddle peduncle as they approach spawning time the male coo become reddish on the sides green on the back and head and often dark on the belly while females are less strongly colored the male will develop a kipe and a hump on its back another species of interest is chum salmon on average chum salmon might weigh 8 to 12 PBS and be around 60 to 707m Long chum salmon usually spawn fairly close to the ocean so if you are further Upstream in the Fraser River you most likely won't come across this species unlike coo and shinook but similar to Sakai chum salmon do not have spots on their backs or

3:55 tails they have light colored mouths the teeth of chum salmon however are quite large and erupt from a dark band in their otherwise light gums also Chum have a long and narrow coddle peduncle and a deep fork in their tail Chum have a small white tip on their anal Fin and their fins can have an iridescent quality difficult to show in a picture if you get some experience looking at gil rakers you'll find that Chum have fewer and shorter Gil rakers than Sakai as they develop their Spa SP in coloration Chums show reddish purple streaks or bars along their sides and an olive color tinge on their dorsal surface the male will develop a kipe and a hump on its

4:43 back finally let's look at the steel head you might occasionally come across a steel head trout unlike the previous described species they can spawn more than one time an average steel head could weigh 7 to 20 lb and be 50 to 80 cm long steel head have relatively small heads they can be identified by the small sharp teeth on their upper and lower jaws and their light mouths with white gums they have many small spots on their backs and Tails and have a square-shaped tail with a wide coddle peduncle steel head undergo many of the same changes as salmon as they approach their spawning phase becoming darker on their backs and red on their sides but

5:29 the steel head you'll encounter will likely be bright in color in this next section let's practice our salmon identification skills have a close look at the mouths of these species look at the outside of the mouth especially the lower jaw notice how shinook and coo have darker mouths now have a look at the gums shinuk have black gums but coo have white gums pink salmon also have darker gums while Cham and saai are somewhere in between next let's look more closely at the Tails see how some species have lots of spots you can easily identify the pink and the shinook because they have lots of obvious spots pink have bigger

6:14 oval spots than shinook and coo usually have spots but they are not as obvious and only on the upper portion of their tail the Spotless Chum and scky Tails are a bit harder to distinguish but Chum have a narrower coddle peduncle and some Sil streaks in their coddle fin also notice the fork in each of the Tails Chum have relatively deeply forked Tails while the tail of a COO is quite Square e

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