Numbers tally 2005 salmon losses

Mar 04 2006 New numbers released by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans indicate 3.4 million Fraser-bound sockeye are estimated to have spawned.   Department officials had expected 12.5 million sockeye to return. But the largest and most key run – summer sockeye – was devastated.   Just 2.6 million made it back to spawn out of a group expected to yield nearly 11 million, officials say.   Researchers primarily blame poor marine survival, caused by warm ocean temperatures that drastically reduced nutrients across the food chain.   Unlike the previous year, DFO doesn’t count the dismal 2005 return as another case of millions of “missing” salmon because they died at sea rather than vanishing after entering the river.