Idaho’s sockeye salmon run falters again; experts perplexed

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A meager return of sockeye salmon to central Idaho this year despite high hopes and a new fish hatchery intended to help save the species from extinction has fisheries managers trying to figure out what went wrong.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game plans to form a working group to understand why only 27 of 660,000 juvenile fish raised in the hatchery and released in central Idaho in 2018 survived the two-year, 1,800-mile trip to the ocean and back to return as adults.

Fisheries managers expected about 800.

On a more positive note, 125 fish reared in the wild in Redfish and Pettit lakes near Stanley returned this year.