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Kokanee / Sockeye
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(Oncorhynchus nerka) |
The kokanee salmon is the land-locked version of the sockeye salmon and shares many of its characteristics, including a swift swimming style. Like the sockeye, the kokanee salmon is a slender fish with a blue-green back and top of the head, iridescent silver on the sides and white or silver on the belly. Juveniles develop some dark speckling on the back and oval parr marks on the sides.Kokanee salmon are the product of evolutionary changes in sockeye salmon that were prevented from migrating to the ocean, and thus adapted to surviving exclusively in freshwater lakes. The migration of the kokanee salmon during spawning season is much more limited than that of the sockeye. Kokanee return to the site of their birth within their freshwater systems between August and November, normally along inlet streams of the lakes or shoreline gravel beds. Mature kokanee turn bright orange-red before the spawning season. The male displays more prominent coloration and develops a hooked jaw and humped back.
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