The pink salmon or humpback salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family. It is the smallest and most abundant of the Pacific salmon.
Pink salmon are bright silver fish when they live in the ocean, and their coloring changes to pale grey on the back with yellowish white belly when spawning. They have two dorsal fins including one adipose fin, dark colouration of the mouth and gums, large oval shaped black spots on the tail and back and 13-17 rays in their anal fins. The males develop a large humpback during spawning, hence their nickname "humpies". Pink salmon are the smallest of the Pacific salmon with an average weight of five to six pounds and length of 30 inches.
Pink salmon have a two year life cycle. Adult pink salmon enter spawning streams, usually returning to the water course, or race, where they originated. Spawning occurs between late June and mid-October. The pink salmon prefer sloughs and slow moving water for spawning, and may spawn in the intertidal zone or at the mouth of streams. The female fish lays her eggs in gravel, she digs a trough or nest, called a redd, in the gravel with her tail, and once she has laid her eggs, and they have been fertilized by the male's milt, covers them. The female lays between 1500 to 2000 eggs, and guards the nest until death, both males and females both die approximately two weeks after spawning. The eggs hatch from December to February depending on the water temperature and the young emerge from the gravel during April and May and quickly migrate downstream as fry. They return to freshwater in the autumn of the following year as two year old adults. Pink and chum salmon can interbreed to form hybrid salmon.
Adult pink salmon are cold-water fish with a preferred temperature range of 5.6 to 14.6 °C, an optimal temperature of 10.1 °C, and an upper lethal temperature of 25.8 °C. The pink salmon is native to Pacific and arctic coastal waters from Sacramento River in northern California to the Mackenzie River, Canada, and to 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 the pink salmon has successfully been introduced to an entirely fresh water environment.
For commercial fisheries the pink salmon is the least preferred of the pacific salmon, due to its small size and pale flesh. Pink salmon is grown in fish farms by aquaculturists in Canada, Australia and Chile. The flesh is often canned, smoked or salted. Pink salmon roe is also produced commercially.
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 and drift or set gillnets. Some increase in population is evident.
Salmon Pink is a color that is derived the flesh of the pink salmon.
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source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_salmon