Life of a Sockeye On July 22nd, 2021, news broke that Bristol Bay was having its biggest sockeye salmon return since recordkeeping began in 1893. More than 63 million sockeye had returned to the bay’s different watersheds and fish were still running. By the time the run was complete, almost 66 million sockeye had returned on their journey to complete the life of a sockeye salmon. A few days later, I left town to guide a natural history brown-bear film shoot in Southeast Alaska. One of the sequences we were trying to get was of a bear chasing salmon underwater. We had a camera in an underwater housing submerged near the base of a raging waterfall. It could be operated from 100 yards away with an iPad. On its screen, I watched dozens of pink salmon and small, darting, feasting Dolly Varden. In the middle of the frenzy was a salmon with a crimson body and green head—a male sockeye. It was swimming in place beneath the falls, waiting for the right moment to attempt climbing them so it cou
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