Tag Archives: sockeye salmon
Barely half of all the sockeye salmon migrating up the Columbia River have survived to reach their spawning grounds
Unseasonably hot water has killed nearly half of the sockeye salmon migrating up the Columbia River through Oregon and Washington state, a wildlife official said on Monday. Only 272,000 out of the more than 507,000 sockeye salmon that have swum between two dams along a stretch of the lower Columbia River have survived the journey, said Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife fisheries manager John North. “We’ve never had mortalities at this scale,” said North. Read the rest here 15:16
PInks are out competing sockeye salmon for food at sea, report says
Growing numbers of pink salmon are out competing sockeyes for food in the ocean, causing the reds to grow slower and smaller. That’s the claim of a new study by Seattle and British Columbia researchers, who say the race for food ultimately affects sockeye abundance and survival. Greg Ruggerone is a senior scientist at Natural Resources Consultants in Seattle and study co-author. He says it was aimed originally at finding causes for declining sockeye runs at British Columbia’s Fraser River in 2009. Audio, Read the rest here 18:34
Pink salmon populations augmented by hatchery programs hurt sockeye returns, study finds
Nations around the Pacific Ocean may have to cap the number of hatchery salmon they release if sockeye salmon runs are to return to sustainable levels, according to a new study. Record high numbers of pink salmon in the North Pacific coincided with the disastrously small 2009 Fraser River sockeye return, while the unexpectedly large 2010 sockeye return interacted with 40-per-cent fewer pinks, said Brendan Connors, co-author of the article published by the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. Read the rest here 12:34
Fish and Game predicts average year for Cook Inlet commercial harvest
Commercial fisheries managers in the Cook Inlet are predicting a run of about 5.8 million sockeye salmon with a harvest of about 3.7 million of those fish by all user groups, according to its 2015 outlook for commercial salmon fishing. Commercial Area Management Biologist Pat Shields said the harvest, if the forecast is correct, would be about average. The Kenai River sockeye salmon forecast is about 3.6 million fish, while the Kasilof River sockeye salmon run is about 1,092,000. On the Susitna River, 276,000 sockeye salmon area expected to return. Read the rest here 15:01
Record Numbers Of Salmon And Orcas Flood Pacific Coast
Record numbers of salmon, sockeye salmon, in never before seen abundance are swimming into the Strait of Georgia in British Columbia according to the numbers published by the Pacific Salmon Commission. The rate at which the prized sockeye are arriving is 170% of that of the previous record year of 2010 arrived more than 34 million strong. (Note: The 34 million number is the “official count,” the total number of fish returning is normally said to be 20% higher than the “official count.” Thus in 2012 upwards of 40+ million sockeye likely made it home.) Read more here 18:39
Sockeye salmon are flooding into Campbell River and Fishermen Missing Out on Once in a Lifetime Salmon Run – Video
Sockeye salmon are flooding into Campbell River now in numbers never seen by lifelong fisherman, but there is growing frustration that quota limits mean the commercial fishing community is missing out on an ocean of opportunity. Watch the Video here 16:18
Fraser River sockeye salmon fishery to open for business – this year’s run could see as many as 23 million return
Today’s three-hour opening for gillnetters, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. PT, follows a recreational fishery Friday and First Nations’ food and ceremonial fisheries held on the lower Fraser this weekend. <Read more here> 21:49
Sockeye draft recovery plan for Snake River sockeye salmon shows just how far away success is
NOAA Fisheries NMFS has proposed a recovery goal for Idaho Snake River sockeye salmon of 2,500 natural origin spawners in the lakes of the Sawtooth Valley. The goal was revealed in a recovery plan put out for public comment Monday by the agency with the support of its partners,,, Read more here 15:38
Weekend read: Fishing fleet set to reap bumper sockeye harvest – Industry vows to be better prepared for huge Fraser run than it was for 2010’s record returns
In 2009, B.C. sockeye salmon sales generated just $39.2 million, thanks to the near collapse of that year’s Fraser River sockeye run, A year later, sales hit $174.4 million, which doesn’t include all the frozen and canned sockeye that would have been sold in 2011, according to B.C.’s 2011 Seafood Industry Year in Review. The catch – and the resulting sales – could have been much higher than that, say fisheries experts, but the 2010 returns were so unexpectedly high that it caught fisheries managers, commercial fishermen and processing plants unprepared, and a lot of fish that might have been caught and sold went up the river to spawn – about 13 million, according to one estimate. Read more here 19:38
DFO Director ‘Ready to Tackle Endangered Coho’ – will ‘do their best’ to protect endangered salmon species. Will it be enough?
When sockeye salmon return en masse to the Fraser River this year, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) will have a large presence on land and water to ensure commercial fishers don’t take more than they’re allowed, said Larry Paike, director of DFO’s Pacific conservation and protection branch. Read more here 08:14
Kasilof setnetters to open, some face gear restrictions
As sockeye salmon continue to slam into the Kasilof River, a portion of the commercial set gillnet fishery will get a chance to intercept salmon in the second largest escapement measured on the river. Read more here 09:17
Mixed start for kings as salmon runs begin around state
Commercial fishers, and sport anglers, targeting are off to a stronger start. In Prince William Sound, the total harvest through June 17 was 1.98 million fish, including 1.6 million sockeyes, 239,000 chums, 135,000 pinks and 9,000 kings, according to ADFG’s blue sheet estimate. Read more here 13:31
Rosa Meehan: Fisheries board has prime opportunity for smarter management
Salmon, and fishing for salmon, is an iconic aspect of life in much of Alaska — so are conflicts about who is entitled to fish for how much and when (allocation issues). Read more@adn 12:37
Mat-Su seeks driftnet limits to save coho; drifters push back
Mat-Su officials say the commercial drift fleet is hammering formerly world-class sport coho fisheries on the Little Su and Susitna rivers as well as the Susitna’s sockeye salmon — with little of the attention that shines on the Kenai’s trophy king fishery. Read [email protected] 20:51
Fukushima: Arranging the Deck Chairs While Death Comes from Japan
Fukushima continues to leak, and leak at ever increasing rates and the latest prediction is that this contamination will continue until 2015, at the earliest. Until then, will the Pacific Ocean be poisoned beyond repair (if this has not happened already)? That little tidbit was from Global Research. I’m sure they are just trying to scare us, right? I mean how can a little radioactive water do any damage? more@opednews 07:55
Suction Dredge Gold miners frustrated by new EPA permit
Because the permit overlaps with waters containing endangered and threatened species — bull trout, steelhead, sturgeon, sockeye salmon, Chinook salmon and various snails — the EPA coordinated with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service. “If a suction dredge is in the stream at a time when we have eggs in the gravel . it’s easy to imagine suction dredge mining interrupting endangered fish and probably killing eggs,” said David Mabe, Idaho director for the Fisheries Service. more@thestate 09:56
Lower numbers of sockeye salmon coming upstream this year isn’t a cause for worry for Okanagan Nation
While it may not be as high as some of the recent record returns, there are enough sockeye to allow for the opening of some of the fisheries that are already underway, including the test commercial fishery and the recreational fishery, which opened Aug. 1. @pentictonwestern
New science could benefit sockeye
idahostatesman.com – Transmitters a half-inch long implanted in 4- to 6-inch juveniles and a network of antennae are revealing secrets about why half of all Idaho sockeye die before they ever get to a dam. But about 10 percent more sockeye salmon from the Sawtooth Hatchery in the Sawtooth Valley vanish shortly after their release than do fish from the Oxbow Hatchery along the Snake River transported to the same release site below Redfish Lake. Why the difference? Turns out,,, continued
