This should be a big year for sockeye on Canada’s most important salmon river, but the threat of high water temperatures and several years of low fish survival is putting that forecast at risk.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada is forecasting 14 million sockeye will return to the Fraser River in 2018, which is on par with the big runs that return to the river every four years.
But, alongside that forecast, DFO warns that the fish returning in 2018 will have experienced the same “unusually warm” freshwater and ocean conditions that have coincided with low sockeye survival the past three years.
If those survival trends persist, the DFO report states the river might see as few as 5.3 million sockeye — a fraction
This story was originally published on CBC News. To read the rest of this news worthy story, please visit https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/fraser-river-sockeye-2018-forecast-1.4750305?cmp=rss.