chinook salmon

[shi-nook sam-uhn, -nook, chi-]

noun

1. a large salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, found in the North Pacific Ocean.

Chinook salmon

noun

1. Also called: quinnat salmon.  king salmon. a Pacific salmon, Oncorhynchus tschawytscha, valued as a food fish

Word History and Origins

Origin of chinook salmon¹

An Americanism dating back to 1850–55

Example Sentences

Each summer in July, Greenberg helps organize an annual snorkel survey in which dozens of volunteers swim along the river and count the number of spring-run chinook salmon, as well as summer steelhead.

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This year, the Park fire, which burned through Mill and Deer creeks in the Central Valley, has threatened what Martin called some of last strongholds for endangered spring-run chinook salmon.

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Soto, who has worked for the tribe for more than two decades, said that 15 years ago, it wouldn’t have been difficult to find chinook salmon here in Wooley Creek.

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But high numbers of brown pelican deaths, and major declines in California’s chinook salmon populations, have many concerned about broader ecosystem troubles.

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California regulators have decided to ban fishing for chinook salmon on the state’s rivers for a second year in a row, in effort to help the species recover from major population declines.

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