Amazing run of pink salmon.
If Alaska expands how many pink salmon its hatcheries — such as the one in Tutka Bay — produce, will there be unintended consequences that harm Kachemak Bay?
Around the state, biologists are unsure of what led to the lowest pink salmon harvest since the 1970s in a season that led Gov. Bill Walker to seek a disaster declaration from the federal government to bail out beleaguered pink fishermen. “We caught 39 million pinks this year,” said Forrest Bowers, the Commercial Fisheries Division director for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The department forecasted a harvest of 90 million fish between. Bowers said he had to comb records back to 1977 to find a year that bad.
Pink salmon are showing up in unexpected places around the Homer area.
It happened Thursday night and into Friday morning, when the Crown corporation reduced the spill release from the Daisy Lake Reservoir into the river, stranding fish who had moved closer to the banks.
After learning about catches of pink salmon near Salluit, Quebec wildlife officials are urging any fishers who net the newcomers to report their catch. Two pink salmon were netted in Nunavik during the summer of 2019 in the Ungava Bay region, one near Kangirsuk.
Karen Dunmall, a biologist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, said pink salmon normally prefer warmer waters than the Arctic has been able to provide. But with the Arctic warming at up to three times the rate of the rest of the world, its waters are becoming more approachable for newcomers like this species.
Warm water near Golovin is hurting pink salmon. Many salmon caught had red speckled dots on flesh, raising concerns about food safety. Female pink salmon were seen dead in the bay.
White cysts in the muscle of salmon could be caused by Henneguya salminicola also called "tapioca disease". It affects the texture of the meat but is not a health concerns for people. White cysts could also however, be from a tape worm. That is a human health concern. Guidance on how to check the cysts to confirm and how to prepare food so it is safe to eat, is provided.
Drought and high temperatures have dried the creek and caused thousands of pink salmon and Dolly Varden to die before they could spawn. The event raises questions about vulnerability of area salmon streams to climate change, and for local residents food security.
Norton Sound residents have reported salmon die-offs in unusually large numbers during the last week. According to the Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation (NSEDC), dead pre-spawned pink salmon were found in multiple river systems over the weekend.
Parasite identified as sea lice.
Two pink salmon have been found near Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., 260 kilometres farther up the Mackenzie River than ever reported.
Fishing for pinks has been really up and down the last few years. In 2014 the catch was really low, and then 2015 it was amazing with more than we had ever seen before. This year's pink salmon return again, was really bad.
Don’t treat the river like a personal bathtub. It’s a message Squamish conservationists are putting forward after they found man-made dams blocking pink salmon from their spawning grounds.
During the summer of 2019, warm water temperatures lowered the amount of dissolved oxygen in rivers and caused salmon across the state, including Mountain Village, to die before they were able to spawn.
The creeks were so full - I bet the oxygen levels weren't so good for them though.
Elders are finding this unusual for this late in the season.
But at least there is a stream...
Scientists recently announced they had found an Asian tapeworm species in pink salmon caught off the coast of the Kenai Peninsula. Listen now
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