Sockeye Released Wednesday Morning

About 330 adult sockeye salmon were released September 16 and 17 at Redfish Lake. Idaho Fish and Game released sockeye during two events, on the evening of September 16 and the morning of September 17. These sockeye were reared in the Idaho hatchery at Eagle and the federal hatchery located in Washington. The effort to maintain a hatchery-reared run of sockeye to Idaho is a partnership involving Idaho and federal fisheries agencies, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and the University of Idaho, and is funded by the Bonneville Power Administration. Sockeye were the first Idaho salmon to be listed under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1991. Since 1991, only 16 wild sockeye have returned to Idaho. The captive broodstock effort began in 1991. To date, 314 hatchery-produced adults have returned from the Pacific Ocean to the Sawtooth Valley. Only two adult sockeye have returned so far this year. The fish released this month will spawn in October. Their offspring will head to the ocean in May of 2005 and return in 2007. Idaho's sockeye run the longest distance and travel to the highest elevation of any in the world.