Sockeye salmon ground outside of Alaska. Illegal fishing in Kamchatka is subject to environmental concern. Sockeye is almost never farmed. A facility in Langley, BC harvested its first salmon in March 2013, and continues to harvest farmed salmon from its inland facility. United States sockeye salmon populations are currently listed under the US Endangered Species Act by the National Marine Fisheries Service as an endangered species in the Snake River and as a threatened species in Lake Ozette, Washington. The Snake River sockeye salmon was listed as endangered in November 1991, after the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe at Fort Hall Indian Reservation petitioned the
Kokanee salmon of landlocked sockeye has occurred more than once with different kokanee populations, showing genetic differences between populations. Most evidence points to events that land-locked the lake-type sockeye (which spawns in streams and lakes, rather than tributaries like the sea-type sockeye, but is still anadromous and spends most of its adult life out at sea), which evolved into the non-anadromous form. Genetic evidence from kokanee in the Fraser River drainage and Columbia River drainage shows that ancestors of the kokanee came from the lake-type sockeye. The data also suggests that the kokanee may have evolved back into a lake-type anadromous form