Alaska is the last bastion of the wild salmon and in its waters live the largest and healthiest populations of wild salmon on the planet. The name Alaska Wild Salmon groups together five species which spawn in the crystalline Alaskan rivers and spend their adult life in the waters of the North Pacific Ocean.
Alaskan salmon, like those of the Atlantic, are anadromous: they are born and live the first stage of their lives in fresh water and then migrate to salt water, returning to the river where they were born to spawn and die.
In contrast to the Atlantic Ocean, where there is only one species of salmon (salmo salar), in the North Pacific there are seven salmon species, five of which are fished commercially in Alaska. They belong to the genus Oncorhynchus, a term combining two Greek words: “onco”, which means hook or chin and “rhyno”, which means nose. The scientific names of the five Alaskan salmon species were established during the exploration of Siberia and are linked to the common names by which these fish were known in the native language.
Alaska is the last bastion of the wild salmon and in its waters live the largest and healthiest populations of wild salmon on the planet. The name Alaska Wild Salmon groups together five species which spawn in the crystalline Alaskan rivers and spend their adult life in the waters of the North Pacific Ocean.
Alaskan salmon, like those of the Atlantic, are anadromous: they are born and live the first stage of their lives in fresh water and then migrate to salt water, returning to the river where they were born to spawn and die.
