Long at extinction levels, the Snake River sockeye salmon are returning to the Stanley Basin in record numbers this summer.  It’s due to a record outmigration of smolts in 2006, favorable river flows, court-ordered increased spill at the hydroelectric dams and apparently more favorable ocean conditions for the Columbia and Snake River sockeye.

Six weeks ago Federal fish managers professed ignorance at the bountiful run of upper Columbia River sockeye.  We solved that mystery here.  Today’s focus on the Snake River run advances the same story.