Adapted from Alaska Fishing by Reni Limeres & Gunnar Pedersen

King salmon were originally distributed coastally from Hokkaido, Japan, to the Anadyr River in Asia and from Kotzebue Sound to central California in America. The least abundant of the Pacific salmon, they have historically been most concentrated in larger river systems (the San Joaquin  Sacramento River system of California and Washington's mighty Columbia each supported runs in excess of a million fish at one time). Today, king salmon are found in greatest numbers from British Columbia north to the Yukon River. In Alaska, chinook runs occur along most of the southern and western coasts, from Dixon Entrance in Southeast Alaska to Point Hope in Northwest Alaska, with the most significant populations found in the state's great rivers  the Yukon, Kuskokwim, Nushagak, Susitna, and Copper.

Though the chinook has not fared well by man throughout much of its range (the Columbia and other once-great salmon rivers of the Pacific Northwest have runs so decimated that they are now under protection by the Endangered Species Act), the chinook's status in Alaska remains remarkably stable. Commercial catches have been above 600,000 fish in recent years, while sport anglers annually harvest more than 120,000. The greatest threat to the future of Alaska's wild chinook seems to be the proliferation of hatcheries and creation of 'mixed stock' fisheries that fuel an insatiable and unrealistic public demand for more angling opportunity. (Hatchery releases of kings now contribute to a significant percentage of the commercial and sport harvests in certain areas of Southeast and Southcentral Alaska  up to 50 percent or more.)