Products | Fresh and Frozen | Pink Salmon

Pink Salmon

(Oncorhynchus gorbuscha)

Physical characteristics: In ocean-caught fish, skin color is brite silver with a blue back. The pink salmon has large black spots on it's sides, back and tail fin. In more mature fish that are entering fresh water to spawn, the skin color gradually turns from gray ("watermark"), to green, black ("darks"). Male pinks develop a pronounced hump on their backs (hence the name "hump-back" salmon or "humpie"), and large canine-like teeth. Pink salmon are the smallest of the five pacific species with a weight range of 1-10#. Most commercially-processed fish is in the 2-6# range on a dressed headless basis.

Seasonality: Typically runs from July through September.

Major catch areas: Alaska, Canada, Washington, Oregon, Russia, Japan.

Harvest method: Most production is net-caught, using either a seine or gill-net. There is a small amount of production out of southeast Alaska and Canada of troll-caught production.

Product forms:

• Fresh: Dressed headless is by far the most common fresh product form. Small amounts of fresh skin-on and pin bone-in fillets are also sold.
• Frozen: Dressed headless and dressed head-on, size graded as u/2#, 2/4# and 4/6# by quality grade of bright, watermark and dark. Hump-back, mature pinks are sold without size grade.
• Value-added: IQF and shatter pack fillet, either skin-on or skinless and bone-in or boneless. Pink mince is also sold. The l largest "value-added" form is as canned salmon.

Flavor/texture profile: Depending on the degree of sexual maturity, the meat color can be pink to light pink. Pink salmon is one of the lower-fat salmon species, so flavor is mild. Due to the small size of this species, the flake size is quite small.

Notes: The pink salmon is the most abundant of the five pacific salmon species. Traditionally, most product has gone into the can. It's relative price stability and smaller size have made it a good fit for retail ad business both fresh and frozen. European markets use pink salmon for retail, distribution business and smoking. Little pink salmon, on the other hand, goes to Japan largely due to availability of cheaper Russian pinks. Pink salmon are also referred to as "hump-back" and "humpies."