Pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha, Rus. Gorbusha)

The Pink Salmon is the most numerous species of the Pacific salmon. It is the smallest and fast growing salmon. Big black spots cover pink salmon’s body, thin tail and tail fin.

The pink salmon gets into all rivers of Kamchatka and have significant regional differences in reproduction regions and years; recently even years are abundant in Western Kamchatka and odd years are abundant in Eastern Kamchatka. The range in sea is bordered by temperatures of 3.5-15°С (38-59F).

In Eastern Kamchatka they get into rivers first in late June than more in number in mid or late July. Pink salmon gets into rivers of western Kamchatka two weeks later in average. Duration of their moving in the East is about 45 days and more in the West, 53 days.

Kamchatkan pink salmon averages from 34 to 62 cm (13-24”) in length and .5-3.1 kg (1.1-6.8 p) in weight. The pink salmon lives 1.5 years and get back into rivers next year after fries migrate downstream. Fish that get into rivers has sharp breeding changes and coloring which get stronger at getting close to spawning grounds. Mails obtain humps, sharp teeth and pink color of their body. They spawn in August-September in rivers with pebble and sand bars and fast currents, on depth of .2-1 m (.7-3.3 ft).

Pink salmon’s homing feeling is weaker that is why they can go for hundreds and thousands of kilometers from their spawning grounds and sometimes they get into different spawning region.

Pink salmon has great meaning for fishing industry but it is not very popular for sport fishing.