Chum: A milder, more delicate flavour, with flesh ranging from creamy pink to medium red. It is especially low in saturated fat, and to the consumer chum offers especially good value for the money.

Coho:A versatile full flavour coupled with fine-textured, consistently red flesh. Coho have shown a remarkable increase in abundance after rebuilding programs in the 1990's.

Sockeye: Sockeye is currently the financial mainstay of the commercial fishery, contributing about two-thirds of the total value of the salmon harvest. Its deep-red, firm flesh gives it the name of red salmon when canned.

Pink: Pink are the smallest and most abundant of the Pacific species, often known as a 'humpy' from the hump it develops on its back at spawning time. The flesh is light pink in colour and delicately flavoured. Three quarters of the harvest is canned; the rest is sold fresh or frozen in supermarkets, often at attractive prices.