Chinook salmon
The biggest Pacific salmon, called king salmon, whose Elwha River run climbed back over a hundred-year-old dam site within a few years of its removal.
Chinook salmon at a glance
Oncorhynchus tshawytscha shih-NOOK SAL-mun; Oncorhynchus tshawytscha is on-koh-RING-kus tuh-SHAW-it-shuh
- Type
- Fish · salmon
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Size
- Most adult Chinook returning to spawn weigh 15 to 50 pounds, about as much as a full grocery cart, and can grow past 4.9 feet long. Historic Elwha River Chinook were famous for running even bigger, some individuals reported at 100 pounds, heavier than a grown adult.
- Lifespan
- Most live 3 to 7 years, almost all of it at sea, then die within days to weeks of spawning.
- Conservation
- Least concern (IUCN); Puget Sound Chinook, the population in these parks, is listed Threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act since 1999
Eats insects (as young fish), small fish, squid, shrimp-like invertebrates at sea
Young Chinook feed on insects and tiny invertebrates in the gravel streams where they hatch. At sea, sometimes for up to seven years, they switch to eating other fish and squid, which is how they pack on the size that makes them the largest Pacific salmon.
Should you worry?
Chinook salmon are completely harmless to people. Puget Sound Chinook are a federally threatened population, so if you fish with an adult, check current park and state regulations, keep any fish wet, and never step in a redd, the large gravel nest a spawning pair digs, which can be up to 10 feet across.
Nearly 58 kilometers up the Elwha River, past two dam sites that had blocked this water for a hundred years, biologists found something that hadn’t swum there since before those dams were poured: a Chinook salmon, holding in the current near Godkin Creek, in water its great-grandparents’ generation never reached. The Elwha and Glines Canyon dams came out between 2011 and 2014, the largest dam removal in U.S. history, and the Chinook didn’t wait around. NPS reports called it recolonizing, but that word undersells how fast it happened. The fish just went home.
Chinook are the biggest Pacific salmon, the reason people call them “king salmon,” and the Elwha’s own kings were once famous for running especially large, some historically reported at 100 pounds. A fish that size needs years of open ocean to build, up to seven, feeding on other fish and squid far from any river mouth, before it turns around and swims back to the exact stream where it hatched. What the dams had done was simple and total: cut off eleven varieties of salmon and trout from all that water above the two dam sites, for a full century, no negotiation.
A returning Chinook digs a redd, a gravel nest, that can span 10 feet across, big enough to disappear under a boot without a second thought if you’re not watching where you step on a river bar in autumn. Puget Sound Chinook are still federally threatened today, decades of habitat loss that no single dam removal fixes on its own. But the Elwha shows what happens when a river gets its channel back: fish finding water that hadn’t held a Chinook in living memory, and using it like they’d never left.
Did you know?
- Chinook salmon are also called "king salmon" for a simple reason: they are the largest of all seven Pacific salmon species.
- A Chinook's spawning nest, called a redd, can be up to 10 feet across, big enough that a careless step on a shallow river bar can crush a season's worth of eggs.
- Most Chinook spawn in autumn across every coastal river in Olympic National Park, but the Hoh, Queets, and Quinault Rivers also get smaller spring and summer runs.
Common questions
Why is the Chinook called "king salmon"?
Because it's the biggest of the Pacific salmon. Most adults weigh 15 to 50 pounds, and some historic Elwha River fish reportedly reached 100 pounds.
What happened to the salmon when the Elwha dams came down?
Chinook moved back upstream fast. Within a few years of the 2011 to 2014 dam removal, biologists were finding them nearly 58 kilometers up the river, water they'd been blocked from for about a hundred years.
Are Chinook salmon dangerous to swim near?
No, they're harmless. Just watch your step around the gravel bars where they spawn. A redd can be 10 feet across and is easy to trample without noticing.
How long do Chinook live?
Most live 3 to 7 years, almost all of it out in the ocean, then swim home to their home river, spawn once, and die within days to weeks.