Zooillogix

We’re gonna need a bigger canoe…

This is not a hoax. This monstrous Chinook Salmon was found dead in a shallow stream by the California Department of Fish and Game.

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Biologist Doug Killam discovered this angler’s dream during a survey of salmon that had recently spawned in Battle Creek, California. “I have counted tens of thousands of salmon during my career, and this is the biggest I have ever seen.” It better freakin’ be. The previous record holder was an 88lb-er although this beasty’s weight was not provided in DPFG’s press release.

Because Pacific Chinook salmon die after spawning, surveys counting dead carcasses are commonly used throughout the Central Valley to estimate the number of salmon spawning in each stream. These monitoring surveys provide information on the number of salmon returning to specific areas, baseline information for establishing sport and recreational fishing seasons, evaluating hatchery programs, and evaluating habitat restoration and improvement projects.

“Hopefully this fish was entirely successful in passing on its superior genetic potential,” said Killam. We here at Zooillogix have mixed feelings about gigantic, genetically superior salmon prowling shallow California streams, although swift revenge on spindly blue-blood fly fishermen could be amusing.

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As a side effect of sound conservation, the salmon got giganticer…

Comments

#1 dean
November 13, 2008

okay, someone has to say it:
“I for one will welcome our human-sized salmon overlords.”
“This is an ex-salmon. It is pushing up the daisies.”

I assume that they typically count, but leave behind the dead fish – same for this guy, or would there be any benefit from taking it for study?
#2 Katie
November 13, 2008

anglers’ wet dream.
#3 Moopheus
November 13, 2008

“would there be any benefit from taking it for study?”

Or for breakfast? That’s a whole big plate of lox waiting to happen.
#4 Jason Brunet
November 14, 2008

Rotting, putrid lox. Yumstopher.

I sure hope they preserve it and put it on display somewhere, so that I can actually believe this is real.
#5 Zelly
November 14, 2008

How shallow can a shallow stream be and still support something like that? (not minding that is dead)
#6 Theodosia
November 14, 2008

Zelly, an adult salmon like this is on a suicide mission — spawning, then dying. They do their eating out in the ocean, then come home for one reason only. They don’t have time to eat, just find the shallows where there are rocks and lots of running water to deposit their eggs/fertilize the eggs. And then die.

It’s one of those circle of life thangs.

But on the upside — it’s proof that conservation is working, if we start seeing monster salmon like this, which should make the salmon fisheries guys happy, not to mention delicious salmon getting cheaper in the long run….
#7 Jenbug
November 14, 2008

I can’t even imagine my reaction to encountering a nightmare like this.

I’m pretty sure it and its kind are all dead not because of their millions of years of evolved breeding habits, but because I unconsciously wished them all dead from across the continent.

On the upside, yay conservation working!
#8 milkshake
November 17, 2008

you just think that these salmons go upstream, to spawn and die. In fact, they are there to feed on bears.
#9 anonymousnupe
November 18, 2008

My question would be, how often do those things spawn? If it’s annually, are you tellin’ me Gigantor got that big in one year?!
#10 Topdog
November 18, 2008

I believe (if I remember my high-school biology correctly) they live in the ocean for three years before returning to spawn.

Still, that’s bigger than most three-year old humans. Imagine if they stayed out for 8 years.. yikes!

(cue Jaws theme)
#11 neon
April 12, 2009

They don’t have time to eat, just find the shallows where there are rocks and lots of running water to deposit their eggs/fertilize the eggs.
#12 Chris in Buffalo
October 8, 2009

That would make one huge Salmon Pie!

Salmon Pie Recipe
(if you like Salmon, you’ll love this)

1 tall can of Red or Pink Salmon (Wild Alaskan preferred)
4 cup of boiled potatoes cut into small cubes
1 large Cooking onion (with the Yellow Skin)
2 Extra-Deep Pie Shell (usually sold in 2′s)

Peel and cut onion into very small pieces, then sautee in light butter until very deep golden brown, dark.
Open can of Salmon and pour entire contents in a large bowl.
remove bones and skin from Salmon, but keep all the juice, then break apart.
Add the onion and boiled potatoes to the bowl.
Hand mix them all together and stir with a spatula.

Pour mix into pie shell, level out, and cover with remaining shell.
Slit the top and place in the oven for 1 hour at 350 or until top is lightly browned.
Remove from oven and wait, as it will be very hot.

Enjoy hot, warm or cold. Season with a little Heinz , salt and pepper to your taste.

If you like this recipe, please let me know, and share it with others.
#13 Michael Benin
October 27, 2009

Chinooks don’t have that red (at least not in NY)are you sure that is a King and not a Coho???
#14 don
November 12, 2009

thats because it’s a pacific salmon you dipshit. i can’t believe that the 13 posts above this are made by idiots that have not the slightest clue as to anything about fish biology.
#15 Rhi
November 20, 2009

Its red because it has spawned or is spawning. The red color indicates deterioration of the animal. In other words they are rotting, they change color, they die.
#16 Shaun
December 28, 2009

As a student of fisheries I have a few corrections to the above posts. Pacific salmon as they may be there are Coho and Chinook in the great lakes due to human introduction so yes they are out east (Although not naturally). Second, they don’t actually turn red as a sign of decay. Usually when we collect them during a dead pitch they are fairly pale if not covered in fungus. So this specimen is fairly fresh. Chinook do get a ruddy, almost rusty red colour during spawning but I have never seen one this bright red before. Obviously, salmon from different spawning habitats tend to be different in colouration due to water quality, mate preference but they all share at least some similarity.
#17 Joel
January 20, 2010

More corrections from another fish biologist.
Chinook Salmon (which this fish definitely is, Coho don’t come up the Sacramento River system) generally spend three years growing in the ocean before returning to spawn. Some fish skip a cycle and come back at four, five or even six years. That is probably the case with this fish, it may have spent even longer than that in the ocean.
This fish is an anamoly,not an indicator of the effectiveness of conservation efforts. Again, this fish spent very little time in fresh water before migrating out to sea, and grew to this size in the Pacific. If conservation is working, it tends to result in more fish not larger fish.
These fish stop feeding when they enter the fresh water system. By the time it died it had digested all of the yummy fat in it’s tissues, most of its internal organs, and replaced the lost volume with water. The meat left is along the lines of a very gamey, grainy tofu.
These fish get left where they are found, part of the study is to see how they get moved around by the river and other critters as they break down.
There would be little to be gained by taking it to a lab for study.
There is little about this discovery that is revolutionary. Its just a damn big fish.
#18 Lacee Moodry
February 15, 2010

Thats a big fish!
#19 Brian Kreb
March 31, 2010

Wow, never realized how little people know about fish. YES, it is a real fish. I was one of two who found this fish, our boss Doug had the time to come out the next day and pose with the monster, calculated at 85lber(after lifting this fish I’d say that this weight is accurate). It was a in-stream spawned out CHINOOK male found in a very small braid of Battle Creek, Ca. I have been studying salmon for ten years and this was the biggest one that I had ever seen. They really don’t need that much water to navigate the stream successfully, however it needs to be cold. I have seen them basically walk on their pectoral fins through water that only covers one third to half of their body depth. Conservation is most likely not the answer for this five year olds giant size. It is most likely lack of competition in the ocean. Anyway glad we could share this fish with you all.
#20 tod_j@hotmail.com
April 17, 2010

Its size may also have to do with the cessation of ocean troll fisheries for the past four years. The longer chinook are at sea the greater their chance to encounter a fishing lure. Hence, selection for shorter year classes and smaller fish back to the streams. I look to see a lot of big fish in California and Oregon streams for a while.
#21 john
April 23, 2010

That’s not BIG!! geeez you guys , I caught one 11 lbs larger on 4lb test line on the Icantbelieveit River.
#22 Cathirene
April 30, 2010

why are salmon dissarepping of the cost of alaska
#23 chuck
July 21, 2010

they are disappearing for the same reason off the left coast. Because of people. Be it from over commercial/recreational fishing, habitat destruction or loss of food.
#24 Joerg
August 13, 2010

We had a great year of fishing this summer in Alaska. If you go to http://www.adfg.com and check the fish counts, you will see that the amount of fishs are more or less the same than 10 years ago. Not bad. But commercial fishing will one day left ous without any fishs left. So many oceans are allready empty………..
#25 prefabrik
August 14, 2010

Open can of Salmon and pour entire contents in a large bowl.
remove bones and skin from Salmon, but keep all the juice, then break apart.
Add the onion and boiled potatoes to the bowl.
Hand mix them all together and stir with a spatula.
#26 Matt
August 23, 2010

The clour you are seeing in this monster is actually the colour of the fish’s flesh. When chinnok salmon enter fresh water to spawn they do not feed any longer depending entirely on fat stores. As mentioned in other posts, the fish will get it’s energy from its own body, including it’s scales(scales are also rubbed off during upstream migration and the actuall act of spawning, fighting etc.) Also their teeth do not get larger for spawning, the skin is actually stretched back from emaciation.
#27 Matt
August 23, 2010

The flesh will show through its now thin skin as the colour you are seeing.
#28 TOPFUEL
September 4, 2010

The fish is red because after spawning they start losing their scales in which exposes their red skin
#29 ken
September 6, 2010

i do a lot of salmon fishing in the shuswap river in the okanogan in b.c canada the chanook we get here are not that big (too bad) but lots are 30-40 lbs although we used to get them 50+ lbs consevation is working to bring back the numbers but the sizes are still slowly shrinking we have right now the biggest run happining in 100 years looking forward to more big runs to come
#30 ISMEK KURSLARI
November 16, 2010

Vaaaavv How much how it is that a fish how to catch a big fish did not come to me unconvincing
#31 tütüne son
November 18, 2010

Conservation is most likely not the answer for this five year olds giant size. It is most likely lack of competition in the ocean. Anyway glad we could share this fish with you all.
#32 prefabrik
December 13, 2010

its very nice answer for this five year olds giant size. It is most likely lack of and amazing.
#33 Priscilla Judd
December 25, 2010

Do you think a fish this large ought to be checked for genetic engineering? I think it’s Chinook salmon that are currently combined with an eel gene to create salmon that grow extra large.

Apparently – if the GE escape the wild salmon populations will be extinct in 40 generations.

So if you read this maybe you want to oppose GE fish – if for only to spare risking our wild salmon – the GE pig is being mixed with a mouse gene. The government is deciding whether to label the frankenfood – personally I don’t prefer mice – so I signed a petition and sent a letter to the President of the USA – apparently you can give the White House a call. Anyway, I received a very nice letter (e-mail) back – didn’t say too much – just that they are still thinking about it.
#34 eero
January 4, 2011

saatanan paska housu tapa ittes
#35 film izle
January 18, 2011

Yes AWESOME! I want one. And little servants to run it for me, of course. Do you think if I got oompa-loompas they’d be small enough not to stick out the top? And their orange hair could make it look all furry…
#36 Connor Bell-Whitburn
February 26, 2011

as for every one.. It is in Oroville California. and when the salmon run it is beautiful.. the males and females spawn and they litterally die off in about 8 inches of water.. it is amazing to watch them swimming in such shallow water..
I watched a fish smaller than the one posted, but close in size, swim over a mini damn, kids had build.. about 4-5 inches of water.. amazing little swimmers these are
#37 Guest
April 13, 2011

Wow. You can totally tell that that’s photo shopped! You are a disgrace to America!!!
#38 Alaskan Fish Lover
April 13, 2011

You. Suck.
#39 Doug Killam
April 13, 2011

I will have you know that the fish in this picture is not photo shopped. You should get your facts straight. Have a nice day. Thanks.
#40 andrew
April 27, 2011

This is to all the fish biologist looking for a good way to track fish movements, size, health. I am from ontario and in ontario when you get a bear tag (lisence to hunt bear) you get a form to fill out with the location you shot the bear in, size, general information and they ask you to send in a tooth, claw and picture. I find it would be prectical to do this with fishing studies as an aid to current methods wich might help determin better conservation efforts. And I know most fisherman (being one myself) would gladly help by doing this, to help keep our ecosystems and fishing strong for generations to come!!!

Andrew Doiron, 22, Ontario, Canada
#41 Evden Eve Nakliyat
April 28, 2011

bu nehirmı yoksa normal göldemı yakalamiş
#42 Nakliyat
April 28, 2011

denizmı normal nehirmı acaba
#43 ariel
June 13, 2011

wow….i cant beleive this fish! i would like to know how you caught it…what kind of fishing pole??
#44 prefabrik
June 14, 2011

If there ever was a sign that the Mavs are supposed to win this series, consider that buzzer-beater by Mahinmi to be that sign.
#45 Oi
June 16, 2011

@ARIEL: It wasn’t _caught_. If you actually read even the second line of the article, it clearly states this fish was found _dead_ in a small stream in California after spawning.

Never ceases to amaze me how few people actually _read_ anything, before posting. Sigh.
#46 alüminyum
July 13, 2011

In February of 2006, a caver in eastern New York photographed a group of hibernating bats with an unusual white substance on their muzzles. The following winter, bats were noted flying outside of caves months before they typically come out of hibernation. Then there were the reports of unprecedented numbers of sick, dying, and dead bats in and around caves, and investigations confirming mortality rates of over 90% in these hibernacula.
#47 profil
July 13, 2011

The following winter, bats were noted flying outside of caves months before they typically come out of hibernation. Then there were the reports of unprecedented numbers of sick, dying, and dead bats in and around caves, and investigations confirming mortality rates of over 90% in these hibernacula.
#48 zhang
July 17, 2011

only a big salmon.only a food of human.only a foolish man stand here…
#49 ankara.net
July 19, 2011

Ertesi kış, yarasalar genellikle kış uykusu gelmeden önce mağaralarda ay dışında uçan kaydedildi. Sonra hasta daha önce benzeri görülmemiş sayıda raporlar ölüyor ve mağaralarda ve çevresinde ölü yarasalar, ve soruşturma bu hibernacula üzerinden% 90 mortalite oranları teyit vardı
#50 سعودي كام
July 28, 2011

Guggenheim billed it as a performance piece and it was just an installation. Resultingly, the crowd simply waited for the “show” to start, limiting anyone’s ability to freely explore the space (the ground floor was packed with indian-style seaters, and the balconies were lined with people holding onto their spots like grim death.
#51 arkadaş
August 5, 2011

teşekürler bilgi için elinize sağlık
#52 toyota cikma parca
August 9, 2011

And I know most fisherman (being one myself) would gladly help by doing this, to help keep our ecosystems and fishing strong for generations to come!!!
#53 smity
August 24, 2011

This guy should be my fishing guide he knows how to find keepers.
#54 cambalkon
August 30, 2011

I’m pretty sure it and its kind are all dead not because of their millions of years of evolved breeding habits, but because I unconsciously wished them all dead from across the continent.
#55 kimberley
September 18, 2011

i think we should be scared if salmon is that big
#56 paul
October 5, 2011

wow on the size .how come it wasn’t seen previous yrs
#57 Rajeev
November 8, 2011

I am really fascinated to see such a big salmon. Normally what I see is between 1 to 2 ft in national geography & history channels. Pl keep me informed about latest developments.
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