Russ George blogged about the Fraser River Sockeye Salmon Run getting almost twice the previous historic 1900 record after Iron Fertilization of the...

Projections from throughout the ocean and fisheries science venues are advising that this years Fraser River Sockeye Salmon runs will be the all time historic high, twice the previous record of 1900.

As many as 72 million of the bright red fish are expected where the largest runs in all of history have never exceeded 45 million. Even if the run is in the mid-range of the estimates at 25 million fish the run will be in the top 6 in all of recorded history.

That high bar on the far right side of the chart is the 2010 run which have been named the volcano miracle salmon. In mid August 2008 the Kasatochi volcano in Alaska erupted and spewed mineral rich ash onto a part of the NE Pacific ocean salmon pasture. The vibrant ocean bloomed just in time to feed the Fraser River Sockeye which instead of mostly starving were treated to a feast. Those very same Sockeye came back to the Faser river 30-40 million strong. The babies from that gigantic run that went to sea in 2012 were never-the-less not much greater in numbers than a typical year. We made sure those baby sockeye swam into their ocean pasture that was replenished, restored, and could feed them all.

The Fraser River sockeye projection is in line with other stunning returns of salmon that coincide with the work to restore their ocean pasture which was successfully accomplished in the summer of 2012. Last falls record runs and catch of Pink Salmon from Alaska south where instead of the expected 50 million fish being caught in SE Alaska 226 million Pinks were caught clearly perfectly fits with the restoration of plankton abundance in the offshore salmon pastures we carried out in 2012.

Read more »