SOCKEYE   (Oncorhynchus nerka)

Rotlachs

Best know of the Pacific salmon, sockeye are the most sought after for their superior flesh, colour and quality. Their rich oil content and red colour are factors that make them a favourite with the Canadian and international public. Although all Pacific salmon feed on shrimp and other crustaceans, these are the main diet of the sockeye,which many believe induces the rich colour and oil content.

Sockeye is believed to be derived from the Indian name "sukkai", used by natives of southern B.C., with various versions according to different Indian dialects.

Sockeye were the first salmon to be canned in quantity and are still the mainstay of the canning industry, which started in British Columbia in 1870. By 1876 three canneries were established in the province and expansion was so rapid that by the turn of the century 65 canneries were in operation. The number peaked in 1917 with 84 canneries, but gradually declined as canning technology improved and salmon became scarcer, especially sockeye.

Stocks from B.C. river systems were heavily fished at the turn of the century as canning became the best method of preserving salmon. In the early 1900s an average of 700,000 cases of canned salmon a year, each weighing 21.6 kg, were processed, with figures fluctuating year by year as the salmon runs varied.

Most sockeye spawn in rivers that feed into lakes, or in the outlets and spring-fed beaches of lakes, sometimes as far as 1600 km from the sea. Sockeye run from June to November, and after spawning the young emerge from the gravel and spend up to three years in lakes generally downstream from their spawning area.  Here they feed on crustacean zooplankton and insects and their larvae. Migrating juveniles (called smolts) travel down to the ocean during May and June. When they reach the sea, they move rapidly outward or along the shore, feeding voraciously as they go. They develop into attractive fish with silvery bodies and blue-green backs, faintly-speckled with black. Sockeye range far out into the Pacific and the Gulf of Alaska, thousands of nautical miles from their home streams. Their size varies with age: a four-year-old sockeye averages 3.0 kg, while older fish will run to 5.5 kg. After a number of years at sea, sockeye return to their home streams to spawn. In the majority of southern B.C. rivers and streams, sockeye return as four-year-olds, but in northern rivers of the province, five-year-olds are about as common, and still farther north in Alaska, six-year-olds are in the majority. Some eight-year-old sockeye are also found in northern rivers.

As sockeye approach their home streams, they turn varying shades of red - first a dull, brownish red and as they progress upstream, a brilliant scarlet with pale green heads. The males develop large teeth and hooked jaws. Sockeye are caught by gillnet, purse seines and trolling gear.