Commercial fisheries include the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery.

It is named for the brilliant sockeye salmon that once returned from the Pacific Ocean in such massive quantities that the lake shimmered red during spawning season.

All five species of Pacific salmon spawn including the commercially productive sockeye salmon run into the Chignik system.

Starting this week, big king or chinook salmon, many in the 20-pound range, are available, as are smaller, deep red-fleshed but somewhat softer sockeye salmon.

Half of all fish caught in the western U.S. come from the Bering Sea, and Bristol Bay has the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery.

The river is one of the most important sockeye salmon breeding areas in North America.

Last year, only a single sockeye salmon made it to the alpine spawning grounds here, 900 river miles inland from the Pacific.

Heavy infections of farmed Atlantic salmon and wild sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) by L. salmonis can lead to deep lesions, particularly on the head region, even exposing the skull.

As he talks, he is inspired by a prop on the table of his office: a mounted sockeye salmon, the last one in 1992 to make it back to Idaho to spawn in 1992.

Both were named for the red-scaled sockeye salmon that returned every year to spawn via the Salmon River.