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Chinook Salmon
Habitat and Diet:
Although the Chinook salmon is native to the northern Pacific
ocean, in 1967, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources
planted Chinook in Lake Michigan and Lake Huron to control
the alewife, an invasive species of fish from the Atlantic Ocean.
Both the Chinook and Coho salmon have done very well in the
Great Lakes.
Chinook eat insects, and small crustaceans while young, and
eat mostly other fish when they are adults.
Relationship to humans:
The Chinook salmon is highly valued by the commercial
fishing and sporting industries. A large Chinook salmon puts
up a tremendous fight for even the most experienced angler.
Fun/Unusual fact:
Chinook salmon were described and enthusiastically eaten by
the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Lewis wrote that, when fresh,
they tasted better than any other fish he had ever eaten!