Pink Salmon Identification Guide

Key identification features

• Smallest Pacific salmon, silvery in the ocean phase with very fine scales - the smallest scales of any Pacific salmon
• Large, oval black spots on both lobes of the tail fin, bigger and more elongated than any other salmon's tail spotting
• Spawning males develop a pronounced humped back (giving rise to the nickname "humpback salmon") and a strongly hooked jaw
• Spawning coloration is often blotchy pink, olive-brown, or dusky, with females staying less humped
• Typically only 3-5 pounds, far smaller than other Pacific salmon

Common look-alikes

• Chum salmon: lacks the large oval tail spots of pink salmon, showing a calico, tiger-striped body pattern instead when spawning
• Chinook salmon: much larger overall, with smaller, rounder tail spots rather than pink salmon's large oval ones
• Coho salmon: lacks large tail spotting and never develops the pronounced spawning hump seen in pink salmon males

Where you'll see one

Pink salmon range across the North Pacific from Puget Sound and British Columbia through Alaska to Siberia and Japan, spawning on a strict two-year cycle that produces separate odd- and even-year runs in most rivers.