Sockeye salmon ocean and live their entire lives in freshwater. Sockeye salmon is the third-most common Pacific salmon species, after pink and chum salmon. "Oncorhynchus" comes from the Greek ὄγκος (onkos) meaning "barb", and ῥύγχος (rhynchos) meaning "snout". "Nerka" is the Russian name for the anadromous form. The name "sockeye" is an anglicization of "suk-kegh" (sθə́qəy̓), its name in Halkomelem, the language of the indigenous people along the lower reaches of the Fraser River (one of British Columbia's many native Coast Salish languages). "Suk-kegh" means "red fish". The sockeye salmon is sometimes called red or blueback salmon, due to its color. Sockeye
Sockeye salmon National Marine Fisheries Service. Other sockeye populations in the upper Columbia River and in Puget Sound are not listed under the Act. Sockeye is an exception to 2010's forecast resurgence of Oregonian fish stocks. Spring Chinook, summer steelhead, and Coho are forecast to increase by up to 100% over 2008 populations. The sockeye population peaked at over 200,000 in 2008 and were forecast to decline to just over 100,000 in 2010. As an early indication of the unexpectedly high sockeye run in 2010, on July 2, 2010, the United States Army Corps of Engineers reported over 300,000 sockeye had passed