January 24, 2006
According to John Sanchez, of the forest fish program of the Siuslaw National Forest, the term "coastal coho" was coined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to signify both a geographic and genetically similar group of coho salmon.
This is referred to in government lingo as an "ESU" or Evolutionary Significant Unit.
"They were trying to find the fish most similar and most likely to interbreed," Sanchez said.
The general area of the coastal coho ESU (see map, page A12) is between Astoria and Port Orford.
Lincoln City is also home to a distinct salmon population in Rock Creek.
Coho are usually distinguished by their silver color. They use coastal streams and tributaries to spawn and rear their young in, ranging farther than their cousins, the pink salmon, sockeye and Chinook.
Coho can be found in virtually every small coastal stream with a year-round flow of water because they often use many streams to spawn and reproduce.
The fish deposit eggs in the gravel in the fall, the fry emerge from the gravel the next spring and, in their second spring, go to sea, approximately 18 months after the eggs were laid.
Adult coho can reach an average size of six to 12 lbs., and in exceptional cases, up to 31 pounds.