Pink Salmon
Oncorhynchus gorbuscha
Smallest, most abundant, and most consumed Pacific salmon. Mild, soft pink flesh. Best for cakes, patties, chowders, and anywhere salmon plays a supporting role rather than a starring one. Most canned salmon on a U.S. shelf is pink.
A two-year-cycle fish, with strong runs in even years in many Alaskan watersheds. Caught primarily by purse seine and gillnet around Kodiak and through Southeast Alaska.
Don't sleep on pink. The price is right and the flavor is honest. The trick is to not treat it like sockeye.
Where pink salmon lives
Biological range is not the same thing as catch context. This section separates public agency range information from the Alaska catching grounds connected to this guide.
Ocean-feeding salmon with a short two-year life cycle that return to coastal streams to spawn.
North Pacific waters from Asia across Alaska and down the Pacific Coast.
Centers on Kodiak and Southeast Alaska pink salmon fisheries.
Catching grounds
The Alaska waters connected to this guide entry. Click through for the full story of each catching ground.
