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As water temperatures warm due to climate change, pike in Southcentral Alaska are becoming hungrier and more aggressive as their metabolisms ramp up, according to a peer-reviewed paper published in the journal Biological Invasions last February. The study compared the stomach contents of pike found in the Deshka River during the summers of 2021 and 2022 with similar samples taken a decade earlier.
Another study revealed that invasive pike, a freshwater fish, can navigate through saltwater, opening vast new regions for them to colonize—overturning previous assumptions that the fish could only move through connected freshwater systems.
Year-old pike were found to have eaten 63 percent more compared to pike in the earlier sampling. Pike of every age were found to have increased consumption rates. Alaska is the fastest warming state in the nation, warming 4.3 degrees Fahrenheit since 1970. Given that trajectory, scientific models included in the study forecast a 6 percent to 12 percent increase in pikes’ appetites by 2100.
“Ther ability to capture prey goes up when it’s warm and then their consumption demand goes up,” said Peter Westley, a UAF fisheries professor and study co-author.
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📸 Emily Mesner and Paula Dobbyn
