Baker River (Washington) only known sustaining population of Sockeye salmon in the Skagit River drainage basin. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has determined the Baker River sockeye to be genetically distinct from other sockeye salmon. As of 1992 the condition of the population was listed as "critical". In 1985 only 92 adults were found to return to the river. Since the 1990s, however, the population has recovered somewhat, in part due to improvements in the smolt trapping and transportation system. 20,235 fish were counted in 2003 and since 2010, the numbers have been between 10,000 & 30,000 fish counted per
Environmental issues with salmon 59 years of catch and escapement data of Bristol Bay sockeye to determine age and size at maturity trends attributable to the selectivity of commercial gillnet harvests. The study found that the larger females (>550 mm) of all age classes were most susceptible to harvest. The study suggests that smaller, younger fish were more likely to successfully traverse the gillnet fishery and reproduce than the larger fish. The study also found that the average length of sockeye harvested from 1946–2005 was 8 mm larger than the sockeye who escaped the gillnet fishery to spawn, reducing the fecundity of the average