Idaho fish biologists believe that a 20-year program to pull Snake River sockeye salmon from the brink of extinction has paid off. In an article published in this month's edition of Fisheries, two biologists reported the iconic fish have reversed what scientists call the extinction vortex - that is where there are not enough fish left for the species to maintain itself.
Scientists feared the Idaho sockeye were gone in 1992 when only one male adult - they named him Lonesome Larry - returned to Redfish Lake near Stanley Idaho at the foot of the Sawtooth Mountains.
But a crash program in aquaculture, financed largely by the Bonneville Power Administration, slowly began to revive fish numbers and the genetics they need to survive and thrive in the wild.
Now, the power agency releases millions of sockeye eggs into lakes and streams in the Sawtooth Valley, and even hatchery-raised fish have begun to spawn again in RedfishLake, producing more naturally spawned offspring.
The naturally spawned fish return at rates several times those of hatchery raised salmon, and they seem to be more fit to survive the grueling 900-mile migration to the ocean and back again.
Redfish Lake got its name because wild salmon once returned in such great numbers that the water was tinted red.
