The largest is also Alaska's state fish and considered top of the line for grilling or preparing fresh, the king or chinook salmon, also called tyee, which averages 20 to 40 pounds and ranges from Monterey Bay in California to the Chukchi Sea in Alaska. A relative of a fossilized ancient sabre-toothed fish eight feet long weighing 400 pounds, kings can get to 100 pounds. In the sea, kings have steel-blue backs and heads, silver or white sides and bottom. Large black spots adorn their dorsal fins, backs, sides and lower tail lobes. No other salmon has the distinctive black gum line on the lower jaw.
Kings remain at sea two to seven years.
They stop eating when they enter fresh water. Like chameleons, they turn a bright red-purple and males develop a hooked snout. Great for poaching or grilling, coho turn a dark maroon-red color on their sides when spawning. They develop a hook snout with large teeth. Coho are the last of the salmon to spawn and the most acrobatic of the Pacific salmon.