SOCKEYE SALMON

noun Etymology: by folk etymology from Northern Straits (Salishan language of southern Vancouver Island and nearby islands) sə́qəy̓ Date: 1869 a commercially important Pacific salmon ( Oncorhynchus nerka ) that is greenish blue above and silvery below when sexually immature and turns red with a greenish head when ascending rivers to spawn which it does chiefly from the Columbia northward