Pink or Humpy Salmon
(Oncorhynchus gorbuscha)
Pink salmon are the smallest of the five species featured on Alaska Seafood Direct, averaging about 3 pounds. It's too bad consumers aren't nuts about pinks because they're so abundant! An ocean caught pink or humpy can be smoked, promptly barbequed, cut up and used in chowder or stews, tacos, in pasta sauce or salads. A 3.5-ounce serving of pink salmon provides 1.3 grams of omega-3 fatty acids into your blood stream.
Fast fact: The humpy is by far the most abundant salmon species in Alaska with annual commercial catches exceeding 140 millions fish!
A humpy grows to about 15 to 24 inches in length and can reach 4 or 5 pounds. Why are these fish often referred to as humpies? That's an easy question to answer. Adult male fish develop a pronounced, flat hump on their backs which becomes more noticeable as the fish gets ready to spawn. The females become an olive green color with a lighter colored underside. Adults living in the saltwater don't have the hump feature and are bright, silvery blue with some black spots on the back and tail.
You'll find huge numbers of pink salmon spawning in Alaskan streams between late June and mid-October.
Other Types of Alaska Seafood: King Crab, Dungeness Crab, Snow Crab >>>
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