Record number of humpies running the Dungeness River

Courtesy John Gussman



SEQUIM - Hundreds of thousands of pink salmon are returning to spawn in the Dungeness River near Sequim.  It's the biggest run in 50 years, the Peninsula Daily News reported.  The biannual summer run of the salmon, known as "humpies" or "humpbacks", is expected to rival the run in 1963, which totalled more than 400,000 salmon.  There are so many fish in the river that they can easily been seen anywhere near the Dungeness Fish Hatchery, the paper reported.

All of the pink salmon returning to the river are wild-born and similar numbers of pink salmon are also being seen in other rivers in the region, Scott Chitwood with the Jamestown S'Klallam tribe said. Of all the Pacific salmon species, pink salmon are the least dependent on freshwater habitat and spend nearly their entire lives in saltwater, Chitwood said.