Variations in Annual Average Weights of British Columbia Pink Salmon, 1944–1958

• Published in: Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada
• Main Author: Godfrey, Harold
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1959
• Subjects: General Medicine; Oncorhynchus gorbuscha; Pink salmon; Alaska
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/f59-026; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/f59-026

Average weight data of British Columbia pink salmon, Oncorhynchus gorbuscha, since 1944 were made available by the Fisheries Association of British Columbia, and were used to compare annual changes in size among stocks throughout the Province. Adult pinks of the odd-year cycle were almost invariably larger than those of the even-year cycle. In British Columbia this cycle has also been consistently the more abundant, and in southeast Alaska these fish have been either about equally as numerous as the even-year pinks, or, upon occasion, much more numerous. The pink salmon of each of the major fishing areas in the Province show similar annual changes in average weight. From an extremely small average size in 1946 there was a trend of steady increase, among all stocks and involving both cycles, over the next 8 years; this was followed by a decline in 1955 and 1956, then a further increase in 1957 and 1958. A comparison between southeastern Alaska pinks and pinks of northern British Columbia showed that they had experienced similar year-to-year weight changes during the earlier period of 1930–1939.