![]() The previous record was broken three years ago, when almost 63 million sockeye swam back to the bay before thrashing upstream to spawn.īritish Columbia, where wild salmon stocks are declining at unprecedented rates, can only dream of such abundance. But it exceeded our forecast by at least 10 million fish.” Even more surprising and interesting for Schindler are the consistent record, and near-record, Bristol Bay sockeye returns over the past eight years. “Our forecast for this year was certainly strong,” Schindler, whose research focuses on Bristol Bay salmon, tells The Narwhal. It was the largest sockeye run in Bristol Bay since tracking began in 1893. ![]() ![]() “Fish just kept pouring in,” says Schindler, a professor in the school of aquatic and fisheries sciences.īy early September, almost 69 million sockeye had passed through Bristol Bay en route to the watershed’s six major river basins, where they had hatched an average of four years earlier in tiny sheltered nurseries under gravel in streams and creeks. In places, the volume of fish seemed to be greater than the volume of water. Streams and rivers turned crimson as fish jammed together, fin to fin. Schindler, a Canadian who teaches at the University of Washington, remembers thinking, “wow, this thing is going to be bigger than we expected.” Salmon were spilling over the banks of small creeks. Every summer, biologist Daniel Schindler walks hundreds of kilometers up and down the Wood River in Alaska, counting red and green sockeye salmon homing to spawning grounds from Bristol Bay.
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