🐟Photo: Alaska Region U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service · Public domain
🐟Sockeye salmon
The sockeye salmon, also called red salmon, kokanee salmon, blueback salmon, or simply sockeye, is an anadromous species of salmon found in the Northern Pacific Ocean and rivers discharging into it. This species is a Pacific salmon that is primarily red in hue during spawning. They can grow up to 84 cm in length and weigh 2.3 to 7 kg (5–15 lb). Juveniles remain in freshwater until they are ready to migrate to the ocean, over distances of up to 1,600 km (1,000 mi). Their diet consists primarily of zooplankton. Sockeye salmon are semelparous, dying after they spawn. Some populations, referred to as kokanee, do not migrate to the ocean and live their entire lives in fresh water.
Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
IUCN Red List assessment, 2011.
- Body mass
- 4.24 kg
- Body length
- 0.45 m
- Shoulder height
- not recorded
- Top speed
- not recorded
- Bite force
- not recorded
- Maximum lifespan
- 8 years
Everything we know about the Sockeye salmon
Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.
Body mass4.24 kgrecord 7.71 kg · FishBaseAnAgeDetails ↓Hide ↑
data quality: acceptable
Record: largest individual on record
Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0
Body length0.45 mrecord 0.84 m · FishBasetypical adultFishBaseOther figures ↓Hide ↑
Record: largest individual on record
Source: FishBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0
By sex
- Female0.71 mFishBasev25.04
Maximum lifespan8 yearsrecord 8 years · FishBaseAnAgeDetails ↓Hide ↑
data quality: acceptable
Record: largest individual on record
Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0
Trophic level3.54FishBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: FishBase · v25.04, estimate table · CC BY-NC 4.0
DietcarnivoreaverageDetails ↓Hide ↑
From trophic level 3.54 (FishBase): <2.2 herbivore, 2.2–2.8 omnivore, >2.8 carnivore.
Danger to humansharmlessFishBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: FishBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0
Volume l4.2 LaverageDetails ↓Hide ↑
Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.
average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.
Not recorded for Sockeye salmon yet: shoulder height, top speed, bite force.
Family tree
- kingdomAnimalia
- ›phylumChordata
- ›orderSalmoniformes
- ›familySalmonidae
- ›genusOncorhynchus
- ›speciesOncorhynchus nerka
- superclassRay-finned fish · Actinopterygii
- familySalmonidae
- subfamilySalmoninae
- genusOncorhynchus
All 12 branches ↓Fewer branches ↑
- kingdomMetazoa
- phylumChordata
- subphylumCraniata
- subphylumVertebrata
- superclassGnathostomata
- superclassRay-finned fish · Actinopterygii
- classActinopteri
- subclassNeopterygii
- orderSalmoniformes
- familySalmonidae
- subfamilySalmoninae
- genusOncorhynchus
More about the Sockeye salmon
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