The King of Alaska! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Chinook

Actually the king salmon has a lot of different names, including Quinnat salmon, spring salmon, and Tyee salmon. The name Chinook, however, comes from the native peoples who live in the Pacific Northwest who spoke the Chinookan languages. Today many of the tribes have joined into a confederation called the Chinook Indian Nation.

As described by Lewis and Clark, they lived along the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean and were skillful canoe-makers, traders, and fishermen. Salmon was one of the mainstays of their diet, and was so plentiful that it was never necessary for them to keep animals or learn how to farm.

The king salmon not only provided food, but it also became important to their religious beliefs and formed the basis of their way of life.

The First Salmon ceremony is still held to insure the annual return of salmon; it is believed that this ceremony must take place before fishing can begin.

Answer: It migrates from the sea up to fresh water to spawn.

Two of the types of fish migrations recognized by scientists are anadromous and catadromous. Fish like salmon and striped bass are anadromous; they migrate from the sea to fresh water to make their nests and spawn. Catadromous fish, like eels, do the opposite.

They migrate from fresh water down to the sea to spawn. In the 1940s another term, diadromous, was coined. At first it was used to describe all fish that migrate between the sea and fresh water. However, now it includes all aquatic creatures that do the same.

Answer: 3-4 years

King salmon have been found to spend as little as one year or as many as eight years in the ocean before they migrate to fresh water in order to spawn. The average age, however, is 3-4 years, according to the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. Speaking of averages, the length and weight given in the introduction are nowhere near indicative of how large some of the king salmon can grow.

The largest king salmon on record weighed in at 126 pounds!

Answer: His teeth

When they are at sea, it is very difficult to tell the difference between a male and female king salmon; when their migration begins, however, the male's appearance begins to radically change. His teeth, commonly called "breeding teeth", grow longer and stronger, packing quite a sharp bite. Male salmon will bite other males who are competing for nests to fertilize.

In addition, his snout develops a curve, like the fish in the picture, which is called a kype. He also becomes more hump-backed. Why? These changes are believed to make them sexually more attractive during spawning; apparently the size of the kype determines the frequency at which a male king salmon can spawn!

Answer: The color of their bodies.

Before spawning, adult king salmon males and females are both silvery in color and almost indistinguishable from one another. When it is close to time to spawn, however, their colors change. As they acclimate from living in salt water to living in fresh water, the male will typically change to an orange or red color - sometimes it might even be green or brown - while the female will become a darker silver color that is described as being almost black.

It is believed that the change in color makes them easier to spot and might signal that they are ready to spawn.

It also helps them to better absorb the oxygen in the water.

Answer: Redd

The female salmon, known as a hen, will make several nests called redds. She will move gravel with her body and deposit her eggs - 2,000-6,000 in each redd, which are then immediately fertilized by the male before she covers them with gravel. Each female will make several nests and, according to the Togiak Refuge (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service), can lay up to 17,000 eggs! Each redd is easy to spot as the digging process uncovers clean gravel; they typically measure 1-2 square meters in size.

Answer: She guards her eggs.

Some scientists believe that the salmon hen is very successful at guarding her eggs, but the truth of the matter is that her time to guard is limited. It is estimated that she can stay on guard 4-25 days and dies before the eggs hatch, 90-150 days after they have been laid. Why is there such a wide span of days in hatching time? The water temperature affects the incubation period of the egg. What is the male doing during this time? While some sources say that he is also guarding the eggs, it seems more likely that he is looking for other eggs to fertilize.

It is estimated that only about 15% of the eggs deposited will hatch; factors such as water pollution and predation play a role in the survival of the young salmon, which is called an alevin after it hatches.

At this point the young alevin uses its yolk sac to meet its nutritional needs.

Answer: Parr

After hatching the alevin will spend the first part of its life hiding in the gravel bed of the stream where it is born, eating its yolk sac. When it no longer needs the yolk sac and can find food, such as plankton, on its own, it is called a fry. At this time the young fish continues to live in the stream where it was born; as it develops its camouflaging stripes and spots, the fry becomes a parr.

It may then stay at this stage for 1-3 years, living in the stream and growing into a smolt. It is at this stage that it begins to live in brackish water, where its body begins to adapt for the changes necessary to begin to live in the sea. King salmon are called kelts after they have spawned. Roe is a common term used to describe the mass of eggs of a female fish.

Answer: It quits eating.

A young fry will eat plankton; as it grows, however, the salmon will also eat insects and small crustaceans. As it matures and swims to the sea, it will also begin to eat other fish. When the king salmon returns to fresh water to spawn, however, it quits eating altogether.

This is quite shocking, considering the long, arduous journey ahead. It uses all the reserves it has to make what, for some, like the king salmon that spawn on the Yukon River, can be a 1,900 mile migration just from the sea to where it was born! And that after it has already swam that far to get to the sea in the first place! It is estimated that king salmon can travel 18 miles a day! Every bit of energy it has is used to complete the migration and spawn, after which its death is inevitable.

Answer: True

Scientists are actually still trying to determine how the king salmon knows where it was born! While some say that it may have something to do with the animal's sensitivity to the Earth's magnetic fields, others think that it is possible to remember smells that may have been present at the birth stream.

These smells apparently are imprinted when they are smolts, preparing for their journey to sea. Experimental research in the 1950s led scientists to believe that smolts become sensitive to odors in the stream where they were born and they are able to remember that exact smell. Of course, it has also been proven that not all salmon find their way back to the exact place to where they were born, but many believe that to be a rather low percentage in comparison to the number that do.