Alaska Salmon

In a year when salmon and steelhead returns were seeing historic lows across the Pacific Basin, Bristol Bay, Alaska noted record-high sockeye salmon returns at over 66 million fish, shattering the 2018 record of nearly 63 million. Bristol Bay salmon returns have been studied since the 1940s, and this year was only the third time a sockeye return has broken 60 million fish. Conversely, Alaska’s Yukon River saw some of the lowest Chinook and chum salmon returns on record.