pink salmon

Pink salmon are the smallest of the Pacific salmon found in North America weighing on average between 3.5 and 5 pounds, with an average length of 20-25 inches. As with all members of the salmon family, pink salmon are coldwater fish. They are also the most numerous Pacific salmon and have been harvested and canned commercially in Alaska since the late 1800’s. Young pink salmon are completely silver without any dark vertical bars or spots. In the ocean, adults are bright greenish-blue on top and silvery on its sides. They have very small scales and pink flesh. As adults get closer to returning to fresh water, they develop a lot of large black spots on their back and all over their tail. When pinks approach their spawning streams, males turn brown to black on their back with a bright white belly. Females have a bright white belly but turn an olive green with dusky bars or patches that can be lavender or a dark gold. By the time males enter the stream where they will spawn, they have developed a very large hump, and hooked jaws called a kype. Pink salmon are the smallest of the Pacific salmon found in North America weighing on average between 3.5 and 5 pounds, with an average length of 20-25 inches. As with all members of the salmon family, pink salmon are coldwater fish. They are also the most numerous Pacific salmon and have been harvested and canned commercially in Alaska since the late 1800’s. Young pink salmon are completely silver without any dark vertical bars or spots. In the ocean, adults are bright greenish-blue on top and silvery on its sides. They have very small scales and pink flesh. As adults get closer to returning to fresh water, they develop a lot of large black spots on their back and all over their tail. When pinks approach their spawning streams, males turn brown to black on their back with a bright white belly. Females have a bright white belly but turn an olive green with dusky bars or patches that can be lavender or a dark gold. By the time males enter the stream where they will spawn, they have developed a very large hump, and hooked jaws called a kype. Pink salmon have the shortest lifespan of all the Pacific salmon found in North America. They mature and complete their entire life cycle in two years. This predictable two-year life cycle has created genetically distinct odd-year and even-year populations of pink salmon. Fish coming in odd years are unrelated to the individuals returning in even years. Odd-year and even-year populations do not interbreed with each other even when they return to the same spawning grounds. Many times individual streams will tend to have one of the populations (odd-year or even-year) producing more fish. However, in some streams both odd and even years produce about the same number of pink salmon. Occasionally this will shift, and the previously weak year will become the most abundant. As soon as pink salmon fry emerge from the gravel on the bottom of the river, they swim to the ocean. Once there, they begin feeding plankton, larval fishes, and occasional aquatic insects. After 18 months of feeding and growing in saltwater, they reach maturity and return to the river they were born to spawn between late June and mid-October. Males develop the enormous hump on their back, and an enlarged head with big teeth which they will use in fights with other males. The female picks a suitable nesting place and constructs a nest in the river bed by turning on her side and vigorously flexing her body and tail, digging a shallow hole. As she settles into the hole to deposit her eggs, a male joins her to fertilize them. A female may dig and lay eggs in up to four nests, covering her previous nests as she digs new ones. A group of nests is known as a redd. A female stays and defends her redd until she dies, usually within two weeks. Males leave to try and fertilize other eggs. The eggs incubate over winter and hatch in late winter or early spring. The young salmon fry, or alevin, live und