Fishing boats reap a harvest of Chum salmon during the peak November run in the Georgia Starit, BC Canada. SCO 11,303.

---

Record numbers of chum salmon — two million fish — returned to 's West Coast this year, (2016) bringing good news for fishermen fatigued by word of record lows of Fraser River sockeye. "We've had significant abundances ... it's all good news," said Jennifer Nener, Fisheries and Oceans Canada's regional salmon director, earlier this week. That news got even better with the Johnstone Strait haul hitting million fish. "Fraser River chum salmon return is estimated to be two million, the largest return on record," said Lara Sloan of Fisheries and Oceans Canada in an email to CBC Friday. "Catches in Johnstone Strait were some of the strongest on record. There have also been very strong returns of chum to the Nanaimo River." Sloan said the spawning target was met early, with a total catch estimated at 150,000. Chum catches have been strong on the east coast of Vancouver Island also, but she said not all the data is in yet.

---

Size: 5979px × 4090px
Location: Georgia Strait, Qualicum Bay. Vancouver Island. British Columbia. Canada.
Photo credit: © David Gowans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: aboriginal, authorised, barbecuing, boat, break, bright, called, capacity, catch, caught, caught., chum, damage, depending, dog, economy, fishing, flesh, food, haul, holds, industry, large, licensed, limited, loss, monitored, nation, natural, nets, netting, overloaded, pale, people, period, range, recommended, red, resource, risk, run, salmon, sea, sein, silverbrights., sinking, smoking, stars, striped, timed, upstream, world., —