The difference between Atlantic and Pacific Salmon is not just geographic location but an entirely different genus of fish. The Atlantic Salmon is actually one species within the genus Salmo. Pacific Salmon are represented by seven different species and belong to the genus Oncorhynchus. The seven Pacific Salmon species are: Chinook or King, Chum, Coho, Pink, Sockeye, Masu and Amago. All Pacific Salmon die shortly after spawning. Atlantic Salmon have a high post spawning mortality but are capable of surviving and spawning again and again. That is primarily the reason that Atlantic Salmon is the species of choice in Salmon farming.

It is true that salmon almost always return to the same fresh water areas where they were born. Most spawning salmon return to the precise stream of their birth, sometimes overcoming hazardous river conditions and enormous distances to reach home.

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Many salmon from North American rivers roam far at sea in the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. The oceanic distribution of the salmon is dependent upon the species and where they originated. Sockeye and Chinook from northwest Alaska for example, may migrate across the Bering Sea to areas close to Russia and south of the Aleutian Islands in to the North Pacific Ocean. Some salmon migrate several thousand miles from the time they leave the rivers as juveniles until they return as adults. A Chinook salmon once tagged in the central Aleutian Islands and recovered a year later in the Salmon River, Idaho, had traveled about 3,500 miles.