Fraser Sockeye Run Estimated at Nearly Seven Million
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Surrey Leader] By Jeff Nagel - March 24, 2015
It won't be a super sockeye run this year.
But salmon fishermen of all stripes should be allowed to get their nets or lines in the water if advance projections are on target.
Roughly 6.8 million sockeye should come back to the Fraser River this summer, plus or minus a few million, if the pre-season estimates from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans are close.
That's well off both the 20 million sockeye that returned last year as well as the modern record of 30 million a year earlier in 2013.
Still, it's a big improvement from the dismal 1.6 million return of 2009 that triggered a federal inquiry.
"The productivity of the Fraser seems to be returning to something more near average," said Mike Lapointe, chief biologist for the Pacific Salmon Commission.
He said more than half of this year's sockeye return is expected to consist of salmon returning to just two lakes.
Sockeye returning to Chilko Lake make up a projected 2.4 million in-bound fish and 1.4 million are expected to return to Harrison Lake.
"It's quite concentrated in those groups," Lapointe said. "They will...
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