Aquaculture for all

Official Sockeye Counts Way Down on Estimates

Salmonids Sustainability +2 more

CANADA - The mysterious collapse of the B.C. sockeye run has dashed hopes raised just weeks ago of a good return this year.

The Fraser River is experiencing one of the biggest salmon disasters in recent history with more than nine million sockeye vanishing, writes Mark Hume in the Globe and Mail.

According to the news report, aboriginal fish racks are empty, commercial boats worth millions of dollars are tied to the docks and sport anglers are being told to release any sockeye they catch while fishing for still healthy runs of chinook.

Between 10.6 million and 13 million sockeye were expected to return to the Fraser this summer, says TheGlobeAndMail. But the official count is now just 1.7 million, according to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

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