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[norm_2]

I have been reading the Fraser river topics and am wondering why the Columbia river is the complete opposite this year?  The Columbia river is at the Washington State and Oregon border so it is not that far away.  Shouldn't their sockeye be in the same parts of the ocean as ours?

I read this in The Seattle Times, June 22/08, on page D10.

[bentrod]

Not sure why your sockeye is lagging this year.  The Columbia is more than twice the predicted number of fish.  With that said, we're still only talking 150k or so to date.  Doesn't the Fraser get way more than that on an average year? 

[younggun]

fraser gets millions of sockeye and millions of pinks and hundreds of thousands of chums, thousands of chinook and thousands of coho.

[Steelhawk]

Perhaps the difference is in the little or non-enforcement of illegal net poachers along the Fraser, or because we allow the use of 'clean-it-all-up' drift nets in our Fraser, particularly in the shallower upper section. The river can only produce great runs of fish if enough escapement were allowed to spawn for future runs. The damage was already done by mis-management a few years back, and still continuing.  Those groups which over-harvested the socs by their greeds have to face dwindling runs in years to come. Yet we won't be surprised if DFO will allow them to fish while we stay at home. 

[bentrod]

Beside the usual development issues along riparian areas, we in Washington are regulated alot when it comes to fishing (with the exception of the tribes).  It still doesn't give us phenomenal fishing, but hopefully it will lead to a sustainable fishery in the long run.