One things for sure. The Salmon whether it be Atlantic or Pacific was around long before you or I. Who is to say this has not happened before over the years and may or may not happen again?
Nature throws these things up now and again and nature will undoubtedly sort it all out.
That may be true for some things but this situation has nothing to with nature taking its course and everything to do with man ******* things up on a grand scale. No good will come from this.
Saw some pics of redds on the lower Dee the other day - suspected to be pinks too.
If the eggs hatch and if the fry go straight to sea it may not be the disaster that some think. At least it'll give the seals and dolphins something else to target.
For what its worth, chrome pinks are not ugly and make good eating too.
We've all been enjoying them for years in wee tins from John West.
But that is neither here nor there because for some reason this salmon sub-species has taken a huge jump from Northern Norway and beyond and what this wonderful piece of filming from the Ness has done is confirm some of our recent questions.
Pinks are in many of our rivers and in some cases there are now breeding populations.
We now know pretty much for certain some eggs will hatch and that young pinks will head for sea in spring 2018 with a home imprint of our rivers rather than the river their parents came from.
It is the confirmed next stage of a well known cycle.
We don't yet know what our scientists at Marine Scotland think the outcome will be and if it will be positive or detrimental.
We don't know if we should be welcoming this all or netting them out as a matter of priority.
The scientists will be aware that pinks are here from reading sites like this and others as well as the reportage that we've all seen.
I don't think that this collective and deafening silence is good enough for such an important environmental development.
What is the likelihood these fish could thrive and out compete the native Atlantic salmon? Could we see the large runs of fish that the North American rivers get or will they too be compromised by whatever factors have led to the demise of our native fish? All a bit early to say, I suppose.
I would be interested to hear why there is a train of thought/opinion that these pinks could somehow thrive and populate our rivers when the native Atlantics are apparently struggling?
Are pinks somehow "immune" to the various and widely discussed goings on that apparently are ravaging the Atlantic numbers in our rivers for example sea lice?
In other words why would pink numbers go up whilst simultaneously Atlantics go down if they are both exposed to the same environment?
I doubt Mr Seal gets a book out to identify one from tother before munching it!
Not sure yet that we have a problem, maybe, just maybe a benefit, I eagerly await some facts and learned discussion about thei arrival of pinks.
As I understand these pinks they spawn now and do not conflict timewise with our salmon for space on the redds, and I believe they spawn lower down the system. The hatched fish immediately begin their journey to the sea unlike our salmon who can stay in the river up to 4 years before going down to the sea. As these hatched pinks go down to the sea they may produce an additional food source for predators, possibly drawing some of the load away from our Atlantic smolts.
Time will tell and I am very interested in the what the future holds.
Sometimes invasive species can have a positive effect ,well in the short term at least. Zebra mussels,which are filter feeders, have cleaned up parts of lough Erne, as far as I can see.
They also die after spawning so bring food from the sea into the river which may help atlantic parr.
One disadvantage we're unlikely to find is that they're known to attract bears...
I found them to be a good fighting fish to catch when fresh but more regular anglers considered them vermin. Seemed rather fishist to me - though their numbers are a little frightening, we saw at least 500 in one lower pool of the Belousiha.
Based on my own research into "Pinks" habitat, behaviour and lifecycle I don't have a problem with this recent addition to our rivers.
If, and it's always a big IF, the species behaves I see no adverse affects for our resident Atlantic fish. If anything I see only positives for the river system they breed and die in.
Time will of course tell......I ordered up some flourescent pink marabou just in case
Its potentially a huge change to our ecology and predators/scavengers will no doubt benefit. What will the impact be of that I wonder. Also, they may not compete for habitat in river but they surely will at Sea. When they go straight to the salt after hatching, it could be another source of Data for the “All at Sea” debate. A Closely monitored population almost from existence, locally of course, could turn up some very interesting results.
Where do they prefer to go once they migrate, do they hug the coastal inlets like Trout or head straight out into the big blue yonder to feed?.
Development of Pacific Pink Salmon eggs in freshwater is directly
related to water temperature. Approximately 900-1000 temperature
units (centigrade degree days) are required for pink
salmon to reach the stage when fry emerge from spawning
gravel (Heard, 1986). These values approach the total number of
temperature units occurring annually in some arctic rivers -
estimated at 1050-1 150 temperature units for the lower Kokolik,
Sagavanirktok and Canning rivers (estimated from the data
of Craig and McCart, 1975; Griffiths and Gallaway, 1982;
Craig and Schmidt, 1985). Therefore, it seems probable that
arctic salmon populations have physiologically adapted to lower
temperatures and, in addition, they probably select spawning
sites where water temperatures are highest. Stream temperatures
in winter are typically 0-05°C but may reach 2-4°C
or higher in areas influenced by groundwater upwelling. Such
upwelling areas are probably essential for egg and alevin
development. For example, initial water temperatures above
4.5"C are required for normal development of pink salmon eggs
in northern regions (Bailey and Evans, 1971; Persov er al.,
1983).
That means if the average river temperature is 5 degrees the eggs would take approximately 200 days to hatch.
Is that enough science to show how the eggs will survive to hatching.
At this stage with the numbers that are turning up, these fish are in my unqualified opinion progeny of spawners in UK/Irish rivers rather than first generation pioneers. I've heard a rumoured count from the Moy of 14 fish as of more than a week ago. Wait till the carcasses start floating!