Atlantic salmon

The Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is a salmon in the family Salmonidae. It is found in the northern Atlantic Ocean, in rivers that flow into the north Atlantic and, due to human introduction, in the north Pacific.

Other names used to reference Atlantic salmon are: bay salmon, black salmon, caplin-scull salmon, Sebago salmon, silver salmon, fiddler, or outside salmon. At different points in their maturation and life cycle, they are known as parr, smolt, grilse, grilt, kelt, slink, and spring salmon. Atlantic salmon that do not journey to sea, usually because of past human interference, are known as landlocked salmon or ouananiche.

Nomenclature

The Atlantic salmon was given its scientific binomial name by zoologist and taxonomist Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Later, the differently coloured smolts were found to be the same species.

The name, Salmo salar, is from the Latin salmo, meaning salmon, and salar, meaning leaper, according to M. Barton, but more likely meaning "resident of salt water". Lewis and Short's Latin Dictionary (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1879) translates salar as a kind of trout from its use in the Idylls of the poet Ausonius (4th century CE).