Fisheries and Oceans Canada is predicting a banner year for chinook salmon returns to the Stamp / Somass system this summer.
In a chinook forecast report released yesterday, researchers predict 135,000 chinook will return to Barkley Sound and the Alberni Inlet this year, with 54% of the fish being 4-years old, and 11% 5 years old.
The report calls this year’s above-average chinook return “abundant”.
The west coast Vancouver Island chinook returns continue to improve thanks in part to hatchery programs at Robertson Creek, Nitinat and Conuma rivers.
The Somass Sockeye fishery which has recently begun, is not expected to be as strong this year, with upwards of 400,000 fish forecast. That fishery has seen upwards of a million fish returning to the Stamp / Somass system in past years.
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