Here’s a video of the historic run of sockeye salmon returning to the Adams River, an important tributary to the Fraser in British Columbia:
This is an important run for western Washington treaty tribes, nine of which have treaty rights to harvest a portion of the run. Here’s a piece we posted earlier on the large run and the impact it had on tribal fishermen:
A massive run of Fraser River sockeye salmon this year provided a dream fishery for tribal fishermen, but can’t begin to make up for decades of poor returns that have devastated the tribal fishing economy, tribal salmon managers say.
More than three times as many sockeye returned to the Fraser as were expected this year, but tribes were unable to reach their harvest goals because of a diminished fishing fleet, delayed realization of the run’s magnitude, diversion of the run through Canadian waters and overloaded processors.
The run of 34 million sockeye was the largest since 1913, but is not a sign of a resurgence.
“Based on the information we have, we expect poor sockeye returns for the next three years,” said Lorraine Loomis, Swinomish fisheries manager and tribal representative to the Pacific Salmon Commission, which manages the Fraser sockeye run for the United States and Canada. Fraser River pink salmon, which return in odd-numbered years, will provide some relief to tribal fishermen in limited fisheries next year, she said
