Originally published by National Post, November 16th, 2017
Even in an area renowned as a mystical “lost world” of monster salmon — this salmon was particularly monstrous.
When held aloft by Ted Walkus, a hereditary chief of the Wuikinuxv First Nation, its tail nearly brushed the ground. The animal’s jaws were large enough to encompass a human head. And it weighed in at 50 pounds (22.7 kg) — and that’s after two weeks of crash weight loss due to spawning.
“That salmon would have been even more impressive to see two months prior when it was in the ocean and silver bright,” said Sid Keay with the Percy Walkus Hatchery in Rivers Inlet, B.C.
The giant fish was one of 94 Wannock River salmon caught by the hatchery for their seasonal “egg take.” To increase breeding numbers, the hatchery uses a gill net to round up a sample group of spawning salmon, manually mixes their sperm and eggs together and then raises the resulting baby salmon until they’re large enough for release.
TO VIEW THE REST OF THE ARTICLE ABOUT THIS MONSTER CHINOOK SALMON AND THE WORK OF THE PERCY WALKUS HATCHERY, VISIT nationalpost.com.
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