While experts caution that recovery is still a distant goal, record returns of sockeye salmon to the Sawtooth Valley this summer are a cause for optimism.
Dan Baker, manager of the Idaho Fish and Game's Eagle Fish Hatchery, headquarters for the state's captive breeding program for Redfish Lake sockeye, said 833 fish made the return trip from the Pacific Ocean this summer.
That tops last year's return of 636 of the iconic red fish and far surpasses the second-most recent high of 257 sockeye that came back in 2000. The last year that topped that number was 1985.
Baker said the fish were trapped on the Salmon River, at the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery and near the mouth of Redfish Lake Creek.
Getting back to the Stanley area is no small feat. The anadromous fish live in the ocean and swim upriver to breed in fresh water. Of all the Columbia Basin sockeye, the ones that return to Redfish Lake travel to the highest elevation, over 6,500 feet, and run the longest distance, about 900 miles, the Salmon, Snake and Columbia rivers.
After spending about two years in the Pacific Ocean, the fish then make the return journey to where they were hatched.
The captured sockeye were split into two groups. Eggs harvested from some of the fish are destined for hatcheries, where the young sockeye will be raised to smolts. Leftover adult sockeye not needed to replenish the state's hatchery program were transported back to the Sawtooth Valley for release into Redfish and nearby lakes to spawn naturally. In a year and a half, the hatchery-born smolts will be released into the Salmon River, joining their natural-born cousins for a downstream journey to the ocean.
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Fish and Game released 670 sockeye into Redfish Lake in September, which were expected to spawn along the lakeshore last month. Their offspring should emerge next spring and spend one or two years in the lake before migrating to the ocean. Those fish are expected to return to the lake between 2012 and 2014.
Baker said that during the past few springs, Idaho's hatchery program has released between 150,000 and 175,000 sockeye smolts. The young fish are kept in captivity as long as possible to give them a better chance of surviving the long voyage.
Redfish Lake sockeye (Oncorhynchus nerka) were listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act in November 1991. Historically, up to 30,000 sockeye spawned in the Sawtooth Valley's Alturas, Pettit, Yellowbelly, Redfish and Stanley lakes. The fish are now trapped at the Sawtooth hatchery before they can reach Pettit or Alturas lakes.
The declines in the fish are tied to over-fishing, mining, poisoning in the early days and, perhaps most significantly, a dam-building boom on the Columbia and lower Snake rivers between 1937 and 1975.
While this year's results are promising, especially considering that just four sockeye came back in 2007 and that between 1991 and 1998, a total of 16 returned to Redfish Lake, Fish and Game officials have said that full recovery will take more work.
"This is a big boost to the program and the smolt release program is starting to show good returns," Baker said. "We're moving in the right direction and doing the best we can with what's available."
Baker said the department would like to increase smolt production to as many as 1 million per year. To accomplish that, Baker said, Fish and Game is looking to expand and improve the American Falls Hatchery, but that plan is at least three years away from implementation.
Jon Duval: jduval@mtexpress.com
