Seasons and runs, about 20 Jun to 19 Jul 2027
Bristol Bay sockeye run
The world's largest sockeye salmon run, peaking in early July in the rivers of Bristol Bay, southwest Alaska.
Bristol Bay, in southwest Alaska, has the largest sockeye salmon run in the world. Fish return from the Bering Sea to rivers such as the Kvichak, Naknek, Egegik and Nushagak in a short, intense run that peaks around the first week of July. In recent years the run has often topped 50 million fish, and the commercial catch supplies about half of the world's wild sockeye. A proposed copper and gold mine in the headwaters, the Pebble project, has been a long dispute between its backers and fishers and tribes, and was blocked by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2023.
Fish tied to Bristol Bay sockeye run
Still to be written: Chum salmon, Coho salmon.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Sockeye salmon: Timothy Knepp of the Fish and Wildlife Service., Public domain, source