Do they breathe freshwater? Are they essentially different than West Coast Salmon? Do they swim from the Great Lakes into surrounding rivers/estuaries to breed?
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Coho and Chinook are two of the west coast salmon species. Most salmon are anadromous, that is they live in salt water but are born in and return to fresh water to spawn. Usually they spawn in rivers but several runs actually make it to lakes at the headwaters of the rivers. It is very common for lakes with rivers connecting to the ocean to see spawning salmon.
Sometimes they become landlocked in the lakes. Locally we have a fish we refer to as a Kokanee which is a landlocked sockeye salmon. These fish never return to the ocean, but rather complete their life cycle in fresh water.
Edit: because I am on the west coast of Canada I looked up great lake salmon. It appears that the Chinook, Coho and perhaps the Pinks are actually artificially introduced to the lakes. Humans don’t have a great record of not unintentionally causing problems doing this, but I’m not sure if these salmon stay in the lakes or they try to return to the ocean. Either way there is a possibility of genetic cross contamination or simply competition with the natural species which is probably not a good thing.
https://a-z-animals.com/blog/are-there-salmon-in-the-great-lakes/#:~:text=What%20kind%20of%20salmon%20are,%2C%20Pink%2C%20and%20Atlantic%20Salmons.
Salmon aren’t actually native to the Great Lakes. The DNR started stocking them in the 60’s to counteract invasive alewives. They restock every year to keep the predator/prey ratio up, but the salmon don’t do great here naturally so they would eventually die out without human intervention as the alewife population drops. It’s one of the few instances where intentionally introducing species hasn’t blown up in our face.
Many will find streams and rivers off the lakes to spawn, but a lot of them get confused and end up in the same harbor where they were originally stocked. I’m not sure if any have made it all the way out to the ocean, but I highly doubt it. Salmon are at the end of their life cycle by the time they go up stream and it’s a long way down the Mississippi.
Pacific salmon species and the closely related trout have been introduced all over the world to create recreational and commercial fishing opportunities. Japan has a huge chum salmon hatchery system to feed a commercial salmon fishery. They’ve also been introduced in Patagonia. I know a few people who used to commercially fish for salmon on the Great Lakes out of Wisconsin. Salmon are also stocked in some other lakes for purely recreational purposes. Kokanee are a landlocked sockeye salmon that are popular for this as they are already more adapted to freshwater and sockeye are the only salmon species that spawns in lakes. Most of these aren’t reproducing populations and are re-stocked yearly just like trout. I know in Colorado there are kokanee that make runs from the reservoir up the river that feeds it. However, Im not sure if they actually spawn or not. There are also a couple lakes (probably more) that have stocked Chinook salmon.
As for the fresh vs saltwater question, all salmonids can breathe both. Salmon and steelhead spend most of their lives in the ocean as we know, but cutthroat, bull, and rainbow trout(not true steelhead) can and do make trips to saltwater. Some spend more time in the saltwater, some less, and some never go at all. Sea run cutthroat and bulltrout will go up rivers creeks and streams to feed, or to spawn, and then return to the ocean. Bulltrout in particular like to follow spawning salmon up rivers to eat eggs and spawned out adults. There are fly-fishing flies that imitate salmon eggs and flesh for this exact reason. Chinook salmon as well are known to follow spawning salmon of other species up rivers to feed, and then return to the ocean. All salmon die when spawning with the exception of Atlantic salmon, which are more closely related to trout anyways. Trout on the other hand do not die when spawning.
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