Fish and Seafood Farmed Rainbow Trout / Steelhead Salmon -
Rainbow trout - Steelhead salmon - Oncorhynchus mykiss Rainbow
trout and steelhead salmon are the same fish. "Oncorhynchus” is
Greek meaning "hooked snout”; this is common to all five wild
Pacific salmon species as well as to rainbow trout/steelhead
salmon which are also salmonids. "Mykiss” is the Kamchatkan name
for rainbow trout. Rainbow trout refers to the fish when it is
harvested or cultured in fresh water; steelhead salmon is the
name used when the fish is harvested or cultured in salt water.
In the wild, O. mykiss can be anadromous like salmon, each fish
returning to its original natal river to spawn. However, unlike
salmon, this fish can spend its entire life in fresh water, and
so can be cultured in either fresh or salt water. While Canada
has wild harvests of both rainbow trout and steelhead salmon,
this fact sheet focuses on the fish as a product of aquaculture.
Rainbows and steelhead have small black spots along their back,
dorsal and caud