Estimated 780,000 pink salmon head up Puyallup River

By Chester Allen | The Olympian • Published September 07, 2007

The Puyallup River runs as gray as wet concrete, but the real color of the river these days is pink — as in hundreds of thousands of pink salmon.

An estimated 780,000 wild pink salmon are roaring up the river, and hundreds of anglers are casting lines for one of the biggest runs in years.

"I'm fishing for a couple of pinks — or whatever else gets on my line," angler Leslie Bernard of Tacoma said. "These fish are gorgeous."

Bernard said she doesn't worry about the gray color of the river — which is silt from Mount Rainier glaciers — as long as pink salmon swim under the swirling water.

Pink salmon — in sharp contrast to coho and chinook salmon — are doing well in Puget Sound rivers — especially in the Puyallup and Green rivers, said Kyle Adicks, pink, chum and sockeye program manager for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. "There have always been pinks in the rivers in smaller numbers," Adicks said.

"But it looks like a case where conditions have been good for pink salmon in South Sound. They've just exploded in the Green and Puyallup watersheds."

Pinks have a two-year life cycle, which means that this year's adults are the offspring of a huge run of pinks that roared into the Puyallup in 2005. An estimated 500,000 pink salmon spawned in Puyallup River tributaries in 2005 — mostly in South Prairie Creek. Pinks also spawn in the White and Carbon rivers, which flow from Mount Rainier glaciers into the Puyallup.

Pinks have done well for the past few life cycles because no floods have scoured the eggs from the river gravel, Adicks said.

Pinks — and chum salmon — also could be doing well in Puget Sound because their young head directly for saltwater after hatching out of their eggs, Adicks said.

Coho and chinook salmon spend a year or more in freshwater after hatching, which makes them vulnerable to human-caused pollution and other habitat problems,

If no floods or other woes hit this year's pink salmon eggs, an even bigger run could arrive in South Sound in 2009, Adicks said.

"But it would take just one big November flood to break the bank," Adicks said, adding if the fish stay lucky, the runs could continue to grow and spread. Pinks are known for expanding their range and pushing into new spawning grounds.

Anglers are fishing the river near public access points off state Highway 167 and other spots. The fish, it seems, are everywhere. And they're biting.

"I've caught three pinks and one sliver," angler Tai Tran of Federal Way said. "There are so many pinks it's ridiculous."