Also, the more
informal term for
pink salmon (a species of
Pacific salmon). Humpies are relatively easy to distinguish from the other
varieties of Pacific salmon: they are smallest
species, tend to have very fine
scales, and are far and away the
slimiest as well. Despite their small size, humpies are also the
rowdiest and most
feisty of the
Pacific salmon. Humpies are also very distinctive in that as they grow ready to
spawn, they tend to aquire a large
hump on their back (hence the name "humpy", which is actually a
vulgarisation of the formal "
humpback salmon"). These humps can be pretty impressive, sometimes making the
fish appear rounded like a
halibut.
Humpies have yet another distinction: they are the cheapest and "lowest-grade" of the salmon. There is no commercial market for fresh humpy as far as I know - virtually all commercially-caught humpy ends up as canned salmon (fresh humpies do, however, make for excellent sandwitch spread). The result of this, commercial fishing-wise, is that the massproduction-oriented salmon fisheries (e.g., gillnetting) will often target the humpy; whereas in fresh-fish producing fisheries (those that produce fewer, but are more quality-oriented; namely trolling and dipnetting) they are regarded as a nusciance and will often be thrown back into the waters from whence they came; or, if they are caught by brutal fishermen - cursed at and mutilated.