Pacific Salmon and Steelhead

Illustration of steelhead trout, pink salmon, and coho salmon.

Quick Facts

Number of Species

Species Include

Chinook Salmon, Chum Salmon, Coho Salmon, Sockeye Salmon, Pink Salmon, Steelhead Trout

Region

Alaska, West Coast

School of Chinook salmon swimming under water.

Spring-run Chinook salmon.

About

Pacific salmon and steelhead have a dynamic life cycle that includes time in fresh and saltwater habitats. These fish are born in freshwater streams and rivers, migrate to coastal estuaries, then enter the ocean where they mature. They usually return as adults to the same streams where they were born to spawn and begin the cycle again.

NOAA Fisheries manages and protects several species of fish in the Salmonidae family in both the Atlantic and Pacific. Some are threatened or endangered and protected under the Endangered Species Act. Others are targeted by commercial and recreational fisheries and are managed under the Magnuson-Stevens Act to maintain healthy, sustainable population levels.

Pacific salmon and steelhead include the following species:

Chinook Salmon
- ESA protected
- MSA-managed fisheries
Chum Salmon
- ESA protected
- MSA-managed fisheries
Coho Salmon
- ESA protected
- MSA-managed fisheries
Sockeye Salmon
- ESA protected
- MSA-managed fisheries
Pink Salmon
- MSA-managed fisheries
Steelhead Trout
- ESA protected

Learn about our work to manage and protect salmon and steelhead in the Pacific Northwest:

Featured News

Offspring of endangered female winter-run Sacramento River Chinook salmon that had been injected with thiamine on their return to the Livingston Stone National Fish Hatchery. Biologists brought them to UC Davis as embryos and then examined them to tell if the fish that received supplemental thiamine injections produced healthier offspring. Photo by Heather Bell/UC Davis.

Feature Story

Researchers Probe Deaths of Central Valley Chinook, with Possible Ties to Ocean Changes

West Coast

grilled tuna lemon with mayo_Mariners Menu_photo by Vanda Lewis_NC Sea Grant.jpg

Grilled tuna lemon with mayo. Credit: North Carolina Sea Grant/Vanda Lewis.

Feature Story

Behind the Scenes of the Most Consumed Seafood

Feature Story

Endangered Winter-run Chinook Salmon Increase with Millions of Offspring Headed to Sea

West Coast

Feature Story

Salmon Lose Diversity in Managed Rivers, Reducing Resilience to Environmental Change

West Coast

Recreational Fishing Regulations

Commercial Fishing Regulations

Subsistence Fishing Regulations

Alaska Fisheries

Salmon fisheries provide for commercial, sport, subsistence, and tribal harvest in ocean and inland waters of Alaska. Steelhead are harvested in sport and subsistence fisheries.

Pink salmon. Photo: John R. McMillan, NWFSC

Salmon Fisheries

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council manages salmon fisheries of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off Alaska under the Magnuson-Stevens Act to maintain healthy, sustainable population levels. The Council developed the Fishery Management Plan for Alaskan Salmon Fisheries (Salmon FMP) in the EEZ off Alaska under the MSA.

The Salmon FMP allows a commercial troll fishery in the EEZ off Southeast Alaska, and closes the remaining EEZ off Central and Western Alaska to commercial salmon fishing. All other salmon fishing occurs in State of Alaska managed waters (inside 3 nautical miles), or in one of three historical State-managed net fishing areas that extend into the EEZ. The Salmon FMP does not cover the fisheries in these three State managed fishing areas: Cook Inlet, Prince William Sound, and Alaska Peninsula.

The Salmon FMP delegates management of the commercial troll fishery in Southeast Alaska to the State of Alaska and, under the Pacific Salmon Treaty, the U.S.-Canada Pacific Salmon Commission. The Southeast Alaska troll fishery is a mixed-stock, mixed-species fishery that primarily targets chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and coho salmon (O. kisutch), with pink salmon (O. gorbuscha), chum salmon (O. keta), and sockeye salmon (O. nerka) taken incidentally.

NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast Region has jurisdiction over the salmon species listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Learn more about Alaska salmon fisheries

Steelhead Fisheries

Steelhead are managed by the State of Alaska. They are harvested in state sport and subsistence fisheries.

West Coast Fisheries

NOAA Fisheries works in cooperation with federal, state, tribal, and Canadian officials to manage salmon and steelhead fisheries in ocean and inland waters of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and California. These fisheries are managed under the Magnuson-Stevens Act to maintain healthy, sustainable population levels.

Coho salmon. Photo: John R. McMillan, NWFSC

Ocean Salmon Fisheries

NOAA Fisheries works with the Pacific Fishery Management Council and the Pacific Salmon Commission to manage harvest of salmon in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California. The Council's Salmon Fishery Management Plan guides the management of these salmon fisheries based on the terms of the MSA. The plan covers Chinook and coho salmon, and sometimes pink salmon near the Canadian border. Sockeye, chum, and steelhead are rarely caught in ocean fisheries.

Learn about ocean salmon fisheries on the West Coast

Salmon and Steelhead in Coastal Bays and Tributaries

Some fisheries are not managed under the MSA by NOAA Fisheries or the Pacific Fishery Management Council.

Washington and Oregon

Salmon fisheries in coastal bays and tributaries in Washington and Oregon are managed by the states and tribes.

Learn about salmon fisheries management in Washington and Oregon

In conjunction with states and tribes, specific area management has also been established:

California

Salmon and steelhead fisheries in tributaries of California are managed by the state.

Learn about salmon and steelhead fisheries in California

Management Overview

NOAA Fisheries has listed 28 population groups of salmon and steelhead on the West Coast as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Primary listing and recovery responsibilities for salmon and steelhead belong to NOAA Fisheries. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, other federal and state agencies, and tribal governments also play important roles in recovery.

Learn about the conservation and management of these species

What We Do

Our West Coast Region works with partners to protect, conserve, and recover salmon and steelhead by addressing the threats these animals face and by restoring the habitat on which they depend.

Recovery Planning and Implementation

The ESA requires us to develop and implement recovery plans for salmon and steelhead listed under the ESA. Recovery plans identify actions needed to restore threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead to the point that they are again viable and a functional element of their ecosystems and no longer need protection. Although recovery plans are guidance, not regulatory documents, the ESA envisions recovery plans as the central organizing tool for guiding and coordinating recovery efforts across a wide spectrum of federal, state, tribal, local, and private entities. Recovery planning is an opportunity to find common ground among diverse interests, obtain needed protection and restoration for salmonids and their habitat, and secure the economic and cultural benefits of healthy watersheds and rivers. Recovery planning is a collaborative effort that draws on the collective knowledge, expertise, and actions of communities and partnerships.

Find recovery plans for West Coast salmon and steelhead

Habitat Restoration

Through habitat restoration, we work to undo the damages done to coastal wetlands and salmon-bearing streams. Nearly half of historic tidal wetlands have disappeared from Oregon's coastal estuaries; while in Puget Sound more than 80 percent of tidal wetlands have been lost and vast areas of floodplain wetlands have been cut off from rivers by levees or filled for development. In California, nearly 90 percent of the wetlands have been lost from habitat destruction mainly spurred by a booming population and economic development. We work with our partners to reconnect these marshes and floodplains to tidal or riparian waters and to restore habitat. We restore spawning and rearing habitats for fish, including salmon and steelhead, and improve fish passage by removing dams or replacing undersized culverts.

Learn more about the restoration of salmon and steelhead habitat

Hatchery Programs

Habitat alterations, hydroelectric development, and consumptive fisheries have impacted most of the salmon and steelhead populations in the Pacific Northwest. Hatcheries, or artificial propagation, are one tool to help support wild populations and provide fish for harvest.

Learn about salmon and steelhead hatcheries on the West Coast

Upstream and Downstream Passage

Dams change the way rivers function, and may interfere with the life cycles of salmon, steelhead, and other animals. They are barriers to juvenile salmon migrating to the ocean, and obstacles as adult fish return to their natal streams to spawn. Dams also affect the way water moves down a river, by changing the amount and timing of flow, as well as its temperature and chemical characteristics.

For salmon to thrive, it is important to provide safe, swift passage for juveniles traveling to the ocean and for adults migrating back to their spawning grounds. There are many types of passage infrastructure in use at and around dams, depending on factors such as a dam’s age, size, location, and purpose. Sometimes passage facilities are added many years after a dam is built.

Learn about fish passage solutions

Learn about juvenile downstream passage

Learn about adult upstream passage

Find information on hydropower project reviews in Alaska

Find information on hydropower project reviews on the West Coast

Reintroduction Efforts

Because of habitat destruction and hydropower dams on migratory rivers, many salmon and steelhead species no longer occupy their historical habitats. Reintroducing a species into its historical range is often critical to its recovery.

The ESA provides an important tool to facilitate the reintroduction of threatened and endangered species such as salmon. Section 10(j) of the ESA provides NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service authority to designate populations of listed species as “experimental.” This designation allows us to reestablish self-sustaining populations in regions that are outside the species’ current range when doing so fosters its conservation and recovery.

Learn more about species reintroductions

Pair of steelhead trout digging redd in California river bed.

Pair of steelhead trout digging redd in Stevens Creek in northern California. Photo courtesy of Guadalupe Coyote Resource Conservation District.

Protected Salmon & Steelhead

Chinook Salmon

Nine evolutionarily significant units (ESUs) of Chinook salmon are protected under the ESA:

Chum Salmon

Two ESUs of chum salmon are protected under the ESA:

Coho Salmon

Four ESUs of coho salmon are protected under the ESA:

Sockeye Salmon

Two ESUs of sockeye salmon are protected under the ESA:

Steelhead

Eleven distinct population segments (DPSs) of steelhead are protected under the ESA:

Science Overview

Alaska

Our Alaska Fisheries Science Center works to understand ecological processes that drive the productivity of anadromous fish populations (those that migrate up rivers from the sea in order to breed) in freshwater, estuarine, transitional, and marine ecosystems of the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea. Our scientists focus on marine ecology research, forecasting salmon recruitment, and evaluating the impacts of commercial fisheries on salmon populations.

Learn more about salmon research in Alaska

Pacific Northwest

Scientists at our Northwest Fisheries Science Center contribute to species recovery through research, monitoring, and analysis. These scientists provide NOAA Fisheries managers and regional stakeholders with the tools and information they need to craft effective regulations and develop sustainable plans for recovery.

Learn more about salmon and steelhead research in the Pacific Northwest

Pacific Southwest

Our Southwest Fisheries Science Center conducts biological and economic research of salmonid fishes in California that are listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Research supporting their restoration and recovery includes distribution and abundance, metapopulation dynamics and viability analysis, population genetics, life history tactics and strategies, spatial ecology, wild/hatchery interactions, and ocean and estuarine ecology.