09/02/2010: "Save The Salmon, Yes, But What’s Up With The Sockeye Runs?"

Reports are coming in from Alaska, Canada, Washington, Oregon, and here in little San Juan County, that we are in the middle of the largest runs of sockeye salmon that anyone has recorded.

Jack Giard is an expert on salmon, having fished his whole life, and served on countless boards, commissions, and advisory groups, both locally, nationally and inter-nationally, and he has noted that the it is not only the sockeye that are coming back in huge numbers, but so are pinks.

Ed Kiduff lives on Lopez and spent a day with fellow islander Giard on his reef net boat, and reports that Giard said the official count of pinks was stopped last year when it hit 14 million, and he thought the actual run may have been as high as 25 million fish, and are projecting next years runs to top 30 million.

The old record of 335,300 sockeye passing through Bonneville Dam was set in 1947, and so far there have been 353,000; and still counting. The Fraser river run is the largest seen since at least 1913.

For those who know that the sockeye, a small 3 to 5 pound fish, is the choice for dining, this is good news, but of course it is the very best news one could hope for that, for whatever reason, things are looking good for the sockeye populations.

For those looking for more evidence that something special is going on, they need look no farther than Idaho, and yes, we are still talking about sockeye. In 1992 there was one sockeye that made the 900 mile trip- and a vertical climb of over 6000 feet) to spawn in Idaho waters. This year, the old record set in 1956 of 1,381 returning fish is expected to fall as many as 1,500 or more are expected make the long trip..

So what is going on? Who knows, but best guesses and some science see a cluster of events that may explain, or partly explain the unexpected numbers.

Lot of rain may have helped the young fish head for the pacific, where plankton growth (food) has been high, and cooling waters in the summer have helped out when the fish returned.

Man too has helped, with fish ladders and by-pass features for dams, and there has been more young fish “released” in breeding programs.