Everything about Pink Salmon totally explained
Pink salmon or
humpback salmon,
Oncorhynchus gorbuscha, (from a Russian name for this species gorbuscha--горбуша) is a
species of
anadromous fish in the
salmon family. It is the smallest and most abundant of the
Pacific salmon.
Appearance
In the ocean, pink salmon are bright silver fish. After returning to their spawning stream, their coloring changes to pale grey on the butt with yellowish white belly (although some turn an overall dull green color). As with all salmon, in addition to the
dorsal fin they also have an
adipose fin. The fish is characterized by a white mouth with black gums, no teeth on the tongue, large oval-shaped black spots on the back and v-shaped tail, and an anal fin with 13-17 soft rays. During their
spawning migration, males develop a pronounced humped back, hence their nickname "humpies". Pink salmon average 4.8
pounds (2.2
kg) in weight. The maximum recorded size was 30
inches (76
cm) and 15 pounds (6.8 kg).
Reproduction
Pink salmon in their native range have a strict two year life cycle, thus odd- and even-year populations don't interbreed. Adult pink salmon enter spawning streams from the ocean, usually returning to the water course, or race, where they originated. Spawning occurs between late June and mid-October. Pink salmon spawn in coastal streams and some longer rivers, and may spawn in the intertidal zone or at the mouth of streams if hyporheic freshwater is available. Using her tail, the female digs a trough-shaped nest, called a redd, in the
gravel of the stream bed, wherein she deposits her
eggs. As she expresses the eggs, she's approached by one or more males who fertilize them as they fall into the redd. Subsequently, the female covers the newly-deposited
zygotes, again with thrusts of her tail against the gravel at the top of the redd. The female lays from 1000 to 2000 eggs in several clutches within the redd, often fertilized by different males. Females guard their redds until death, which comes within days of spawning. In dense populations, a major source of mortality for embryos is superposition of redds by later-spawning fish. The eggs hatch from December to February, depending on water temperature, and the juveniles emerge from the gravel during March and April and quickly migrate downstream to estuaries at about one-quarter gram. The fish achieve sexual maturity in their second year of life. They return to freshwater in the summer or autumn as two year old adults. Pink and
chum salmon sometimes interbreed in nature to form the
hybrid known as the miko salmon; the hybrids are reproductively sterile.
Habitat
Pink salmon are
coldwater fish with a preferred temperature range of 5.6 to 14.6°C, an optimal temperature of 10.1°C, and an upper incipient lethal temperature of 25.8°C. The species is native to
Pacific and
Arctic coastal waters from the
Sacramento River in northern
California to the
Mackenzie River in
Canada; and in the west from the
Lena River in
Siberia to
Korea. Populations in
Asia occur as far south as
Hondo Island in
Japan. Pink salmon were introduced into the
Great Lakes; this is the only location where they've been successfully introduced into an entirely fresh water environment. In the Great Lakes, they're most common in
Lake Superior but are rare in
Lake Michigan.
Conservation status
The pink salmon is critically imperiled in
California, and imperiled in
Washington. In
Alaska and
British Columbia they're secure. And in the Great Lakes they've been introduced.lillooet B.C.
Commerce
The commercial harvest of pink salmon is a mainstay of fisheries of both the eastern and western North Pacific; over 100 million have been taken in recent annual harvests in Alaska alone. More than 20 million harvested pink salmon are produced by fishery-enhancement hatcheries, particularly in the northern Gulf of Alaska. Pink salmon are not grown in significant numbers in fish farms. The fish are often canned, smoked or salted. Pink salmon roe is also produced commercially for
caviar, a particularly valuable product in Asia.
Beginning in the late nineteenth century, fish traps were used to supply fish for commercial canning and
salting. The industry expanded steadily until
1920. During the 1940s and 1950s, Pink Salmon populations declined drastically. Fish traps were prohibited in Alaska in
1959. Now most pink salmon are taken with
purse seines,
drift nets or
gillnets. Populations and harvests increased rapidly after the mid 1970s and have been at record high numbers since the 1980s.
"
Salmon pink" is a
color named for the typically pink color of this fish's flesh.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Pink Salmon'.
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