Sockeye salmon decline from the recent (1993) historical cycle peak of 23,631,000 and the return abundance was the lowest in over 50 years. The reasons for this (former) decline remain speculative. According to a consortium of scientists assembled to review the problem, the decline highlights the uncertainty in forecasting salmon returns. After the low returns, the Government of Canada launched a formal inquiry into the decline, the Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River. The Commission has been tasked with investigating all the factors which may affect Fraser River sockeye salmon throughout their life cycle. According
Sockeye salmon Resources Commission in an attempt to establish the species as a forage fish for other predator fishes in the lake. This stock has remained and become a favorite target for anglers. In Japan, a landlocked variety termed black kokanee, or ""kunimasu"" in Japanese, was deemed to be extinct after 1940, when a hydroelectric project made its native lake in northern Akita Prefecture more acidic. The species seems to have been saved by transferring eggs to Saiko Lake, 500 kilometers to the south, however. This fish has been treated as a subspecies of sockeye "Oncorhynchus nerka kawamurae", or even an independent