When is the sockeye salmon run

Age 4 is more common in the Pacific Northwest. While in fresh water, juvenile sockeye salmon feed mainly on zooplankton tiny floating animals , amphipods small, shrimp-like crustaceans , and insects. In the ocean, sockeye salmon continue to feed on zooplankton but also eat larval and small adult fishes and occasionally squid. Fish including other salmon and birds feed on juvenile salmon. Sharks, lampreys, and marine mammals prey on adult salmon in the ocean.

Bears, eagles, and occasionally wolves feed on sockeye salmon in fresh water. After salmon spawn and die, salmon carcasses are a valuable source of energy and nutrients to the river ecosystem.

Carcasses have been shown to improve newly hatched salmon growth and survival by contributing nitrogen and phosphorous compounds to streams.

Northwest Alaska to the Deschutes River in Oregon. All management of the salmon fisheries in federal waters is delegated to the State of Alaska and the Department of Fish and Game. Managers regulate the fishery based on escapement goals to ensure harvests are sustainable. They want enough salmon to be able to escape the fishery and return to fresh water to spawn and replenish the population.

Salmon fishery management largely relies on in-season assessment of how many salmon return to fresh water to spawn. Managers set harvest levels based on these returns. When abundance is high and the number of fish returning is much higher than that needed to meet escapement goals, harvest levels are set higher.

During the fishing season, scientists monitor catch and escapement, comparing current returns with those from previous years to keep an eye on abundance and actively manage the fishery. Almost all the sockeye salmon harvested in the United States comes from Alaska fisheries. Sockeye salmon are also harvested off the West Coast, mainly Washington, with a small amount harvested in Oregon.

Sockeye salmon remain the preferred species for canning due to the rich orange-red color of their flesh. More than half of the U. Gear types, habitat impacts, and bycatch: Primarily harvested commercially in net fisheries , including gillnet purse seines and, more rarely, reef nets. The mesh openings on the nets are just large enough to allow males which are usually larger to get stuck, or gilled, in the mesh. Several million sockeye salmon return to the Kenai River and surrounding Cook Inlet rivers every summer, and excellent fishing is often the result.

In addition to the Kenai, Sockeye Salmon return to several locations throughout Alaska including the nearby Kasilof and fly out locations on the West Side of Cook Inlet. We offer a wide variety of sockeye salmon adventures; both on the Kenai Peninsula and the main Alaska Peninsula.

Plan your Alaska Fishing Trip today. These hard fighting fish run close to shore and are largely caught from the bank.

The sockeye is considered by many to be the finest table fare of all the Alaska salmon. Potential future threats include habitat loss, habitat degradation, climate change, and over fishing. Sockeye salmon are the most economically important salmon in Alaska.

More pink salmon are caught, but sockeye salmon are a higher quality fish and sell for a much higher price. The largest harvest of sockeye salmon in the world occurs in the Bristol Bay area of southwestern Alaska where 10 million to more than 30 million sockeye salmon may be caught each year during a short, intensive fishery lasting only a few weeks.

Relatively large harvests of one million to six million sockeye salmon are also taken in Cook Inlet, Prince William Sound, and Chignik Lagoon. All commercial Pacific salmon fisheries in Alaska are under a limited entry system which restricts the number of vessels allowed to participate. Most sockeye salmon are harvested with gillnets either drifted from a vessel or set with one end on the shore, some are captured with purse seines, and a relatively small number are caught with troll gear in the southeastern portion of the state.

Subsistence users harvest sockeye salmon in many areas of the state. The greatest subsistence harvest of sockeye salmon probably occurs in the Bristol Bay area where participants use set gillnets. In other areas of the state, sockeye salmon may be taken for subsistence use in fishwheels. Most of the subsistence harvest consists of prespawning sockeye salmon, but a relatively small number of postspawning sockeye salmon are also taken. There is also a growing sport fishery for sockeye salmon throughout the state.

Probably the best known sport fisheries with the greatest participation occur during the return of sockeye salmon to the Kenai River and one of its tributaries the Russian River on the Kenai Peninsula. Sockeye are highly prized by sport anglers for their tenacious fighting ability as well as food quality. The Salute to the Sockeye takes place on the dominant year of the four-year cycle. The Salute to the Sockeye is the largest Sockeye Salmon run in North America, and is a three week long event, running from September 30th until October 23, Learn More Watch Video.

The Adams River Salmon Society is run by a volunteer board of directors who are elected by the membership at the Annual General Meeting. The primary focus of the Society is to help organize and run the Salute to the Sockeye held during the dominant run every four years.

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