We don't often feature grip and grin shots here, mostly because they're not all that interesting. The image seen below, in my opinion, bucks that trend. Taken earlier this summer on a glacier-fed creek just north of Juneau, Alaska in the Tongass National Forest, it is a testament to the staggering biomass of the Tongass.

Singles? Sure. Doubles? Sure. But what the hell do you call seven? (photo: Matt Smythe) Click to enlarge.

As I wrote in a post I made while on the road in southeast Alaska earlier this year, salmon overwhelm the rivers of the Tongass. When you consider that the moment captured in this image -- the result of seven anglers swinging streamers and all hooking and landing pink salmon fresh from the saltwater within moments of each other -- was neither the group's first nor last opportunity of the day to record such an occurrence, the hope is that it helps illustrate or qualify just how plentiful the bounty of these rivers is.

It is a bounty that defines this region and feeds its people, culture and economy. It is a bounty born from an ecosystem that is now unique in the world due to carelessness in vast areas of Canada and the contiguous United States which once possessed and were similarly defined by such a resource. Given what we know, what sort of society throws this away?

But, back to the photo: As the photographer, fishingpoet.com's Matt Smythe asks, "Singles? Sure. Doubles? Sure. But what the hell do you call seven?"