Juvenile Stages During the First Year in Salt Water (From Phillips 19771)
Drawings are not to exact scale.
Chum fry (30-35 mm total length). At this stage, fry emigrate from
freshwater to estuaries.
Chum fingerling (~65 mm total length). After approximately 30-40 days
feeding in nearshore areas, the chum fingerling begin to move into deeper, offshore waters.
Chum fingerling (~95 mm total length). At this size, most juvenile chum
will have migrated to the open ocean.
Chum juvenile (100-300 mm total length). From 3 months to the end of
the first year in salt water, juvenile chum are silvery and have lost their
parr marks. This color pattern will remain until the development of
spawning colors as a mature adult.
1 Phillips, A. C. 1977. Key field characters of use in identifying young marine Pacific salmon. Fish. Mar. Serv. Tech. Rep. 746: 13 p.
