Snake River Sockeye to be Released at Redfish Lake

About 300 adult Snake River sockeye salmon will be released at 1 p.m. Wednesday September 9, at the public boat ramp on the west side of Redfish Lake. Officials with Idaho Fish and Game, Bonneville Power Administration, NOAA Fisheries, and Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of Idaho will be present for release and to answer questions from the public and news media. Fish and Game and the Sockeye Salmon Program cooperators will release about 1,200 adult sockeye salmon to Redfish Lake this year, including about 600 fish that returned from Pacific Ocean this summer, and about 600 captive broodstock reared at the Fish and Game Eagle Fish Hatchery and at the NOAA Fisheries' Burley Creek Hatchery in Washington. More than 700 sockeye have returned from the Pacific Ocean this summer. This year will see the highest number of spawning adults in Redfish Lake since 1956 when 1,381 adults returned. The adult sockeye spawn naturally along the lakeshore in October. Offspring emerge the following spring and spend one to two years in the lake before the "smolts" migrate to the ocean in 2011 and 2012. Adults produced from this release are expected to return in 2012 to 2014. In addition, captive and returning adults will be spawned at Fish and Game and NOAA Fisheries facilities in October. Eyed-eggs and fish produced from these spawners will be released to Stanley Basin waters in future years.