Cod

Salmon sushi

This article is about a particular kind salmon sushi fish. For the food, see Salmon as food.

Typically, salmon are anadromous: they hatch in fresh water, migrate to the ocean, then return to fresh water to reproduce. However, populations of several species are restricted to fresh water throughout their lives. The term “salmon” comes from the Latin salmo, which in turn might have originated from salire, meaning “to leap”. The nine commercially important species of salmon occur in two genera. Both the Salmo and Oncorhynchus genera also contain a number of species referred to as trout. Within Salmo, additional minor taxa have been called salmon in English, i. Also, there are several other species which are not true salmon, as in the above list but have common names which refer to them as being salmon.

Eosalmo driftwoodensis, the oldest known salmon in the fossil record, helps scientists figure how the different species of salmon diverged from a common ancestor. The British Columbia salmon fossil provides evidence that the divergence between Pacific and Atlantic salmon had not yet occurred 40 million years ago. United States as king salmon or blackmouth salmon, and as spring salmon in British Columbia. It is also now known to occur, albeit infrequently, in the Mackenzie River. Pacific Ocean in Japan, Korea, and Russia.