That's a lot of Humpies (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha)

Observation: Tutka Lagoon is the site of a fish hatchery and where many people go to snag reds and pinks in the summer. The seiners, of course, come here and scoop out fish by the ton, so the timing for the rod and reel set is always important. There are concerns about the ecological impacts of hatcheries in Kachemak Bay and this one, in particular, is controversial. We hiked in from Jakolof in mid-August, which was past the prime fishing time, just to see how the bay looked and if there were any reds left. We found lots of pinks and some still looking pretty fresh. There were a few bright reds in the schools of pinks but mostly they were all gone. We wondered at the huge number of pinks still in the lagoon and we wondered if they are running later than normal.

LEO Says: We have quite a few observations about the pink run this year, as well as some news articles (attached). This observation was shared with the Environmental Department at the Seldovia Village Tribe, and with the Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADF&G), Division of Commercial Fisheries.

Seldovia Village Tribe Consult: "It has been a big year for pinks for sure around here. Seldovia Slough has had more pinks in it than I can remember in many years. There were even pinks going up into Trena Lake by the Outside Beach again. I haven’t seen that since I was a kid. There were pinks going up Fish Creek and trying to go up the stream at the end of the airport at the head of the slough. There were pinks and reds going up Jakolof Creek clean to the switchbacks. There is a little tributary to Jakolof Creek that I have never seen fish in before other than resident dollies. It had reds and pinks in it. The small stream at the end of the Jakolof Airport had pinks pooled up in front of it like they were there waiting to go up on the incoming tide. I did see some carcasses in the stream but those could have just gotten trapped there as they floated by. Kingfisher Lake had pinks in it when we were there on Monday the 25th. I never made it to Seldovia River this summer to see what that return looked like. I did make it up passed Frank Raby Spit a couple times but it didn’t seem like there were many fish jumping or any large schools."

ADF&G Consult: Glenn Hollowell, Biologist writes, "This year is the return year for the very large return that we had in 2015. In that year ADF&G estimated approximately 7,500 pink salmon in the English Bay River. I sampled the English Bay River for pink salmon otoliths on Wednesday and can confirm that there are a lot of fish there. I was in Tutka Lagoon last Friday (9/15), and in Little Tutka Bay on Monday, (9/18) sampling otoliths from returning pink and sockeye salmon. The hatchery in Tutka Lagoon has been there producing pink salmon since 1978. Both of these locations have numbers of pink salmon that might be expected from the very large pink salmon return in 2015. In addition, as you might recall, the winter of 2015-2016 was quite warm with the Homer Airport reporting 110 days from October 1 through May 15 where the temperature did not fall below freezing. The historic average is only 29 days of above freezing temperatures for this span of time at the airport. This may have allowed some of the pink salmon eggs that were deposited in areas that are prone in normal winters to freeze-out or dewatering to survive in a warm rainy winter. Similar reports of pink salmon returning to marginal habitat areas have been reported in other parts of Kachemak Bay, (Beluga Slough, Fritz Creek, Diamond Creek, etc) as well as other places around Alaska this fall. If we continue to get monsoons rather than winters this trend of increasing pink salmon productivity may continue. Thanks for your observations." -- Glenn Hollowell, Area Management Biologist, Division of Commercial Fisheries, Alaska Department of Fish and Game

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.