September 9, 2020 — A new study has found that global warming could produce higher numbers of pink salmon in the Arctic by making rivers and streams more hospitable for spawning.
The analysis was published by U.S. and Canadian scientists in the journal Deep Sea Research Part II, Alaska’s Energy Desk reported Monday.
The findings bolster reports by Alaska subsistence fishermen that pink salmon numbers have increased as the Arctic warms at more than double the rate of the rest of the globe.
“Maybe in the past, they’d see a few adult pink salmon here and there every few years. Now they’re seeing them every year,” said Ed Farley, a federal fisheries scientist at the Auke Bay Laboratories in Juneau.