Tracking the Sockeye Salmon Run

Sockeye Salmon Life Cycle

From stream to lake to sea and back again, sockeye move hundreds, if not thousands, of miles during their four-to-six year lifetime, and help sustain multiple human and wild ways of life.

• Eggs in gravel
• Alevin within gravel
• Fry move to ponds
• Smolts adapt to salt water
• Young adults
• Adult salmon
• Return migration
• Spawning

Bald Eagle

Bald eagles are opportunistic, gorging on salmon, waterfowl, and even carrion— sustenance the bay’s clean water and abundant wildlife provide in spades.

Steller's Elder

Bristol Bay’s eelgrass lagoons teem with small fish and saltwater invertebrates that fuel eiders through the winter and help them bulk up for breeding season.

Moose

Moose traverse the watershed’s tundra and forest in search of the woody browse and wetland plants that grow lush in salmon-enriched soil.

Brown Bear

Fattened by a salmon-rich diet, coastal brown bears can grow to epic proportions. Bears in Bristol Bay have been known to reach 1,500 pounds.

Rainbow Trout

These hungry freshwater predators grow enormous on salmon eggs, alevin, and fry, making the bay a top destination for anglers from around the world.

Freshwater Seal

Lake Iliamna is the year-round home to a small breeding colony of harbor seals. Worldwide, there are only a handful of seal populations adapted to dwelling in lakes.

Pacific Walrus

These pinnipeds dive deep to feed at the bottom of the Chukchi and Bering seas. In spring and summer, thousands of males rest on four rocky beaches in Bristol Bay.

North Pacific Right Whale

The copepod- and krill-rich waters at the mouth of Bristol Bay are designated as critical habitat for this rarest of all large whale species.

Beluga Whale

Belugas in bay waters feast on vast schools of outbound salmon smolts and returning adults. Echolocation helps them find prey, even in murky river mouths.