Pinks???

[Skeena88]

Searun Fanatic,
the name "keta" comes from the Latin/scientific name for chum salmon (O.keta). Probably a better marketing name than "dog salmon". Haven't caught one yet on a fly, but it is on my list. I am usually hunting upland birds with my dog, Skeena, during chum season, but at 12 years old she is too old to hunt anymore. Maybe I'll take her chum fishing this year instead.

[BFK]

As an FYI--Bright chum are also marketed under the name "silver bright" salmon, with a whitish-pinkish flesh. I've seen them sold as such at Pike Place and Safeway even.

[thee]

we've reported on AHW that a (as in one) pink had been caught in the puget sound.

just sayin'

thee

www.asshookedwhitey.blogspot.com

[Preston]

The Latin name for the species, keta, was originally applied to the chum salmon by German naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller (of Steller's jay, Steller's sea lion, etc. etc.) and was a phonetic translation into German of the name given to them by the native (Koryak) people of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Steller's notes were translated into Russian and then into French and, in 1792, Johann Walbaum published Steller's names of the five species of Pacific salmon and the rainbow/steelhead as the scientific names for the first time.

Thus, in the genus Oncorhynchus, we have:
Oncorhynchus tschawaytscha (Chinook or king salmon), O. kisutch (silver or coho salmon), O. nerka (sockeye or red salmon), O. gorbuscha (pink or humpback salmon), O. keta (chum, dog, or calico salmon) and O. mykiss (rainbow trout or steelhead).


The derivation of O. masou (the cherry salmon) is Japanese and, of course O. clarki. (the cutthroat trout) is named for William Clark. The westslope cutthroat subspecies has been given the name Oncorhynchus (genus) clarki (species) lewisi (subspecies) to honor both Clark and Meriwether Lewis who first encountered it on the upper Missouri River.

Sockeye, the common name of O. nerka, is apparently a phonetic translation from the Salish tongue and was probably originally something like suk-kegh. The derivation of the name "dog salmon" for O. keta is obscure; possibly from the dog-like teeth of the spawning male or because native peoples of the Yukon River drainage caught and dried large quantities to feed their sled dogs during the winter.

[SeaRun Fanatic]

Cool Skeena, BFK and Preston, thanks. That was much more research than I was prepared to do!! On a related note, my O. clarki research on a north sound river today was, alas, a bust but for one LDR.