[6] In the fall of 2017, a dozen pink salmon were counted in Lagunitas Creek about 25 miles (40 km) north of San Francisco, California.

[7] Pink salmon were introduced into the Great Lakes of North America, where there are now self-sustaining populations,[8] and in Iran.

Pink salmon in their native range have a strict two year life cycle, thus odd and even-year populations do not interbreed.

Subsequently, the female covers the newly deposited zygotes, again with thrusts of her tail, against the gravel at the top of the redd.

The eggs hatch from December to February, depending on water temperature, and the juveniles emerge from the gravel during March and April and quickly migrate downstream to estuaries, at about one-quarter gram in weight.

[14] Eggs and the carcasses of spawned salmon adults can provide substantial nutrient subsidies to freshwater food webs.

Where pink salmon are expanding into subarctic Norwegian rivers, their eggs are consumed by native salmonids.

[15] In the Keogh River in Canada, higher numbers of pink salmon eggs were shown to reduce competition among other fish species relying on this food source.

[17] Many of the pink salmon that are caught by bears in Alaska are transported away from the water into riparian areas and forests,[18] and nutrients from the carcasses end up in plants and trees.

[19] Carcasses of pink salmon that successfully spawn decompose rapidly, and are colonized by aquatic invertebrates in the process.

The commercial harvest of pink salmon is a mainstay of fisheries of both the eastern and western North Pacific.

[25] The majority of pink salmon are harvested using coastal set net traps, and the fisheries are concentrated on the east coast of Sakhalin (average 110,000 tonnes per year).