Sockeye Released

Fishing

More than 50,000 juvenile sockeye salmon were recently released into Redfish Lake near Stanley, Idaho, in an effort to bolster the dwindling population.

Four loads of the three-inch salmon were transported to the lake by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game from Eagle Fish Laboratory near Boise.

The young sockeye are offspring of brood parents that biologists raised from eggs taken from adult sockeye that returned to the lake from the Pacific Ocean in 1991 and 1992.

About 21,700 of the sockeye were released into the open lake. Another 28,500 were placed in a series of large net enclosures immersed in the lake and will be released in October.

The salmon are expected to reside in Redfish Lake through the winter before migrating downstream to the ocean next spring.

In order to follow their migration, biologists have injected a portion of the sockeye with computer chip tags that will transmit a radio signal when energized by electronic devices called “interrogators.”

Interrogators have been placed at the outlet of Redfish Lake as well as at several stations along the migration corridor to monitor the travels of the young fish.