One of the most abundant among salmonids (second only to pink salmon) and the most widespread of the anadromous fish species of the salmon family. It is a valuable fishery target.

Chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) is a passage fish of the salmon family. 2 seasonal races: summer and fall. Oncorhynchus keta has an important commercial importance.

The maximum recorded body length is 100 cm, mass is 15.9 kg; life expectancy is up to 7 years. According to other data, the largest specimen of Chum salmon was recorded in Alaska - 109 cm long with a body mass of 20.8 kg. Gill stamens 19-25, gill rays 12-15, pyloric appendages 135-185.

Chum salmon has the widest range among all representatives of the Pacific salmon genus. In the Arctic Ocean basin, it enters the Kolyma, Indigirka, Yana, and Lena rivers to spawn. In the western Pacific Ocean it is found from the Bering Strait in the north to Korea in the south. Numerous in Chukotka, Kamchatka, Sakhalin, Kuril Islands, Okhota and Amur rivers. In North America it is distributed from the Mackenzie River in Canada to Monterey Bay in California.

The diet consists of crustaceans, winged mollusks, juvenile fish (gudgeons, smelt, herring and others).

A transient fish, it spawns once in its life and dies after spawning. Chum salmon in rivers move upstream for hundreds of kilometers, for example, from the Amur estuary to the headwaters of the Bikin and Ussuri rivers. Chum salmon enter the rivers to spawn in late fall, up to and including December. It spawns in the headwaters of mountain rivers and streams, on keys, and very rarely in lakes and groundwater outlets. Fattening of its fry in rivers lasts, as a rule, not more than 3 months. Fecundity of 2.3- 3.2 thousand eggs of orange color. Sexual maturity occurs in the 3rd-5th year of life. Eggs are orange, large (diameter 6.5-9 mm). During spawning, fish change their usual coloration to mating attire. Adults, entering rivers, stop feeding. While in the sea, fish have a silver coloration (chum salmon), in the river they change it to mottled.