Giant Salmon

By Miss Cellania in Animals & Pets on Nov 14, 2008 at 12:53 am

This picture would make a great fishing story, but the truth is that this enormous Chinook salmon was found dead in Battle Creek, California.

Biologist Doug Killam made the find while conducting a survey of spawned-out fall-run salmon on lower Battle Creek near the Northern California town of Red Bluff. (Salmon die after they spawn.)

“I have counted tens of thousands of salmon during my career, and this is the biggest I have ever seen,” Killam said. “When alive, it could have weighed more than the largest Chinook officially recorded in California, an 88-pound fish caught in the Sacramento River.”

Most of the salmon found in these surveys weigh 20 to 30 pounds.

Link -Thanks, Geekazoid!

(image credit: California Department of Fish and Game)

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mrmuggles
Nov 14th, 2008 at 12:56 am
It’s not a salmon, it’s a freakin hippopotamus!
Justin
Nov 14th, 2008 at 1:56 am
After years of humiliating defeats to the Grizzley Bears, the Salmon bring in a ringer to turn the tide.
Ali S.
Nov 14th, 2008 at 2:00 am
@ Justin

Unfortunately, the ringer ended up dead after mating. Ouch. And the bears got an 88 pound meal.
DOJ
Nov 14th, 2008 at 3:17 am
I’ve seen this picture before, and still think it looks a bit “off”. But if it was real I would’ve loved to waterski upstream behind it.
Hawk
Nov 14th, 2008 at 5:42 am
FAKE!
Algonkin
Nov 14th, 2008 at 7:23 am
Can anyone here spell Photoshop?
Algonkin
Nov 14th, 2008 at 7:24 am
Just noticed the location… Red “Bluff” LOL!!
Rocky Rook
Nov 14th, 2008 at 8:05 am
That snout looks like the Penguin’s (from Batman)
dbsmall
Nov 14th, 2008 at 8:39 am
One minor correction…Battle Creek is, in fact, up north by Redding and Red Bluff. It’s even near the Sacramento River.

Chino, however, is in Southern California, nowhere near Salmon spawning areas.

Something about the eye-socket looks…suspicious.
Edward
Nov 14th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Without looking at the photo, I can tell this is a fish story. Any “scientist” who came across such a specimen would have determined its weight rather than saying something like, “Boy, it sure was big!”
iRcommenter
Nov 14th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Sorry guys, I don’t think the CA Dept of Fish and Game has a history of photoshopping and/or producing phony news releases. http://dfg.ca.gov/news/news08/08125.html

51″ long is a big fish, I wonder if the lady-salmon believe that whole thing about if size matters….
Miss Cellania
Nov 14th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
dbsmall, that was my bad… it said Red Bluff (right there in the quote) and I typed Chino thinking of Chinook. Corrected now.
Gail Pink
Nov 14th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
I hope somebody was able to eat off that fish, as least.
Amberae
Nov 14th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
I am sick of those freakin’ non-believer people that say FAKE at any given moment… sure, there are times when things are absolutely impossible, but I am going to tell you something.

I am from Redding! I have seen this fish, and after I saw the fish, the officer picked it up, and they posted the article in the Record Searchlight.

Not EVERYTHING is photoshopped people.

sorry, that’s been building up for like a week and a half now.
Aaron
Nov 14th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Wanted to confirm the comments of iRcommenter and Amberae. I live in Redding as well — the city just north of where this fish was found. It was reported in the local paper here:

http://www.redding.com/news/2008/nov/04/07/

An aside: It’s nice to know other Redding-ites have an interest in the strange and unusual, Amberae.
Doug
Nov 14th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Reminds me of a photo I saw on National Geographic:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/bigphotos/97503725.html

Scary stuff that fish this big live in rivers
stormie24
Nov 15th, 2008 at 1:12 am
woah! I never would’ve expected a salmon to get that big.
And don’t you think that counting fish would be the dullest job ever…my uncle did it for a while and loved it so I guess you have to be a real outdoorsy type to handle it
lovemeordie236
Nov 15th, 2008 at 1:35 am
That would make a darn good fishstick!
SHAWNB
Nov 15th, 2008 at 5:34 am
THE WORLD RECORD SALMON IS 126 lbs so this fish is not really that big compared to the record big compared to everything else though
CD
Nov 15th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
This reminds me of the engineered giant farmed salmon with the knocked out gene that regulates growth. Maybe some frankenfish escaped and bred with wild chinook. Very scary thought!

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