Abundant Year for Pink Salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha)!

Desirae Roehl and Jane Mack write,

At the end of August, my family and I drove to Whittier and were happy to see so many pink salmon in the creeks. Over the next several days, salmon abundance was brought up in numerous conversations and I noticed many family and friends posting photos and videos on Facebook. My aunt Jane Mack from King Cove snapped the associated photo and said, "there were so many humpies (pink salmon) and fish, in general, this year that they were spawning all along the beach from the Rams to the Lagoon. It was amazing to watch. The creeks were so full - I bet the oxygen levels weren't so good for them though." It's not typical for the salmon to spawn along the beaches, but figure they had no choice if they were unable to fit in the creek.

LEO says:

About 75 miles ENE of King Cove on the south side of the Alaska Peninsula lies Sand Point, AK. David Osterback, Captain, Commercial Fisherman, and LEO Member documented the pink salmon run for the Shumagin Islands during the summers of 2015-16. During 2015, Sand Point's pink salmon run had an unprecedented return with numbers not seen before. The following year, 2016 it was the complete opposite, local fisherman did notice a change in the sea water temperature during 2015 as being warmer than 2016. Conversation among commercial fisherman in the Shumagin's during 2016 mention the warmer water temperature's are a potential factor with salmon numbers. During the 2017 salmon season in the Kachemak Bay, pink salmon were showing up in unexpected places around Homer, AK. M. Tcheripanoff

Resources:

Alaska Department of Fish & Game – "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."

• Wildlife Notebook Series - The pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) also known as the “humpy” because of its very pronounced, laterally flattened hump which develops on the backs of adult males before spawning.

Olympic National Park Washington – The Salmon Life Cycle, "The anadromous life history strategy of salmon plays a key role in bringing nutrients from the ocean back into rivers and the wildlife community. Though it varies among the five species of Pacific salmon, in its simplest form, it is hatch, migrate, spawn, die." Source: NPS February 2015.