---
title: "Chum Salmon"
description: "Oncorhynchus keta — Fish. The chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta), also known as dog salmon or keta salmon, is a species of anadromous salmonid fish from the genus Oncorhynchus (Pacific salmon) native to the coastal rivers of the North Pacific and the Beringian Arctic."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/chum-salmon
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Chum Salmon

> Oncorhynchus keta — Fish. The chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta), also known as dog salmon or keta salmon, is a species of anadromous salmonid fish from the genus Oncorhynchus (Pacific salmon) native to the coastal rivers of the North Pacific and the Beringian Arctic.

- Scientific name: *Oncorhynchus keta*
- Category: `fish` (Fish)
- Habitats: `freshwater` (Lakes & rivers), `sea` (Sea & coast)
- iNaturalist observations: 3100
- Wikidata: [Q475211](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q475211)
- iNaturalist taxon: [107572](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/107572)

## Names

- en: Chum Salmon
- de: Ketalachs
- es: Salmón Chum
- fr: Saumon kéta
- nl: Chumzalm
- pl: Keta

## Countries with the most observations

US (1420), CA (1337), RU (46), JP (44), KR (23)

## Summary

The chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta), also known as dog salmon or keta salmon, is a species of anadromous salmonid fish from the genus Oncorhynchus (Pacific salmon) native to the coastal rivers of the North Pacific and the Beringian Arctic. The English name "chum salmon" comes from the Chinook Jargon term tsəm, meaning "spotted" or "marked"; while keta in the scientific name comes from Russian, which in turn comes from the Evenki language of Eastern Siberia.
In Japan, chum salmon is also known as the white salmon (白鮭 シロサケ, shiro sake), autumn salmon (秋鮭 アキサケ, aki sake) or simply "the salmon" (鮭 サケ, sa ke), while historically…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chum_salmon

## Photo

![Chum Salmon](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/chum-salmon/medium.jpg)

Photo: Focus Saranpat Ouilapan · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/191658749

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/chum-salmon?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).