Females select spawning sites, dig nests redds with their tails, and deposit eggs between 2, and 4, in the redds.

Males swim over the redds and fertilize the eggs. Females cover their eggs with gravel using their tails. The eggs hatch during the winter, and the newly hatched salmon alevins remain in the gravel, living off the material stored in their yolk sacs until early spring.

They then emerge as fry and spend 1 to 3 years in fresh water before reaching the smolt stage and migrating out to the ocean, usually in the spring. All sockeye salmon die within a few weeks after spawning. They sexually mature around the age of 5, which means their lifespan is about 5 years, although some live longer.

Age 4 is more common in the Pacific Northwest. While in fresh water, juvenile sockeye salmon feed mainly on zooplankton tiny floating animals , amphipods small, shrimp-like crustaceans , and insects.

In the ocean, sockeye salmon continue to feed on zooplankton but also eat larval and small adult fishes and occasionally squid. Fish including other salmon and birds feed on juvenile salmon. Sharks, lampreys, and marine mammals prey on adult salmon in the ocean.

Bears, eagles, and occasionally wolves feed on sockeye salmon in fresh water. After salmon spawn and die, salmon carcasses are a valuable source of energy and nutrients to the river ecosystem.

Carcasses have been shown to improve newly hatched salmon growth and survival by contributing nitrogen and phosphorous compounds to streams. Northwest Alaska to the Deschutes River in Oregon. Freshwater lakes, streams, estuaries, and associated wetlands provide vital nursery grounds for sockeye salmon.

Anadromous sockeye migrate from fresh water habitats to the ocean to further grow, feed, and mature. Adult salmon leave the ocean, enter fresh water, and migrate many miles upstream to spawn, usually in the stream or lake of their birth. Some sockeye salmon are not anadromous and spend their entire lives in freshwater.

In the Pacific Northwest, non-anadromous sockeye are known as "kokanee. Featured News This is a path diagram for the Bering Sea and Aleutians Islands marine ecosystem. It shows linkages between ecosystem variables.

Arrows correspond to suspected relationships. An arrow pointing from X to Y indicates that a change in X is estimated to cause a change in Y. The number next to each arrow shows the estimated magnitude of the change red arrows indicate a negative change and blue arrows indicate a positive change.

Satellite images courtesy of NASA. Credit: Frank Ramspott. Photograph of Chinook salmon, Coho salmon, and summer steelhead returning to the Elwha River. Photo courtesy of John McMillan.

View More News. Related Species. Seafood Facts. Is Sockeye Salmon Sustainable? Availability Fresh summer and early fall. Frozen, canned, and smoked year-round. Source Alaska to Oregon. Taste Rich flavor that rivals the flavor of Chinook king salmon.

Texture Firm and fatty, making it rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Color Reddest flesh of the wild salmon species. Health Benefits Sockeye salmon is low in sodium and is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids. Nutrition Facts Servings: 1; Serving Weight: g raw ; Calories: ; Protein: More Information Sustainable Seafood.

Seafood News. Pacific Islands. NOAA Fisheries' support of a U. Department of Agriculture program helps get healthy American seafood—like Alaska pollock fish sticks—into school lunches.

Greenville County Schools in South Carolina make a point of serving seafood at least once a week. Alaska: There are hundreds of stocks of sockeye salmon in Alaska. Some stocks are in decline, while others are steady or increasing. In other words, salmon farm operations are inextricably tied to wild fish, in ways that can accelerate the overfishing of our oceans.

In contrast, responsible wild fisheries — like those in Alaska — are designed to prevent overfishing, as well as support and even improve the greater stability of the marine ecosystems by adhering to strict gear and seasonal restrictions that are designed to protect the integrity of habitats and limit bycatch.

These well-managed fisheries ensure that no more fish are harvested from the ecosystem than it can sustain over generations. From a generational standpoint, recent research has found that intensive management of wild fisheries can actually help overfished populations recover and allow healthy populations to sustain themselves indefinitely, while still providing us with bountiful harvests each year.

Today, the salmon aquaculture industry is the fastest growing system of food production , expanding to meet the demands of the consumer market. As it grows, the pressure on wild forage fish stocks will also increase. The problem is that wild forage fish are a finite resource.

To get around this limitation, some operations are moving toward vegetarian fish feeds formulated with plant-based alternatives to fish oil. Taken at face value, these feeds sound like a sustainable alternative to conventional feed.

But vegetarian feed is fraught with its own environmental impact. The soy and corn used in vegetarian fish feed, for instance, may be sourced from industrial farms that pollute or deplete vital resources like water and land.

One recent report cited serious controversies over the production of soy for fish and animal feeds. The increased global demand for soy has, in some cases, led directly to increased deforestation and loss of biodiversity as ecologically critical forests like the Amazon are cleared to make way for cropland.

Market demands have long since transformed landscapes, and continue to threaten our remaining natural resources. The same report noted that nearly all of the environmental impact associated with aquaculture systems that rely upon fish feed can be traced back to the fish feed itself.

Relieving pressure on marine resources has simply shifted pressure to terrestrial ones, as demand for resources continues to outpace a sustainable supply. Until the aquaculture industry can resolve this fish feed problem, it has a significant sustainability problem. In contrast, well-managed wild fisheries support a sustainable supply-driven food system , only offering to consumers what nature can sustain from season to season.

After all, healthy wild fisheries may be abundant, but their resources are still finite. A supply-driven food system is more aligned with the natural fluctuations of abundance in the wild and is resilient to booms as well as drops in fish populations.

Harvest quotas are set and reset every year in response to the latest data that allows a natural resource to sustain itself indefinitely. Following these guidelines can lead to an outright pause on the harvest of a particular species for several seasons until their numbers can recover.

Conventionally, salmon farms are designed as open pens at sea. This means that the surrounding ecosystems are exposed to the large concentrations of waste that are produced in these pens, including pollution from pesticides, antibiotics, excess food, and feces, all of which have a negative effect on the environment.

Pesticides, like the ones used to treat sea lice infestations common in fish farms, pollute surrounding ecosystems and threaten the survival of wild species to whom these pesticides are extremely toxic. It is also less oily because the salmon are constantly swimming and migrating long distances.

Our Keta comes from two different fisheries. One from indigenous fishers near the Kotzebue Sound to the north of the Bering sea; the other from South East Alaska, Crawfish Bay.

Keta hatch and live in fresh water for three-four months before swimming out to sea. After three to four years they return to the river they were born to spawn and die. Our sockeye is caught by Yakobi, who for the first time this year can offer full traceability back to the boat.

Tyson is the main fisher we engage with at Yakobi, and he also catches Black Cod and Keta for us. Tyson fishes at the shore edge on dinghies using gill nets.

Sockeye salmon spend one to three years in lakes and streams and a further one to three years in the sea.

They return to their place of birth to reproduce and die. Caroline Bennett, founder of Sole of Discretion. This piece is part of our ongoing series speaking to the people at the forefront of sustainability, pioneering a new approach to business.

Ultra-Processed Foods: Why is what tastes so good so bad for you? Veganuary vs Regenuary: the good, the bad — and the common ground. Our policies 🍪. Suggested keywords: Health Sustainable Lifestyle Food Fashion Travel. Food Food insiders Sustainable Seafood Read time: 7 min February 15, View from the inside: sustainable salmon.

Caroline Bennett Read time: 7 min. Caroline Bennett, founder of Sole of Discretion , explains more: Caroline Bennett, putting ethically sourced fish on our plates — and the political agenda.

Salmon farm in Scotland. A whole salmon. Yakobi Salmon fishing Alaska. Shop Now. Categories: Food Food insiders Sustainable Seafood.

Photo by Amy Kumler. Our fishing partners use short-soak set nets, which are anchored on shore at one end and about feet out in the water on the other.

As opposed to drift nets, which drift through the middle of the water, set nets allow fishermen to better target specific salmon species. The nets are checked every few hours, and all sockeye that are harvested are immediately put on slush ice, which helps maintain their firm texture and maximizes quality.

Late summer on the Pacific Coast has always meant wild salmon returning from the sea to the rivers of their birth, with a vast ripple effect on ecosystems, economies and cultures from Alaska to Southern California.

These nutrients feed everything from bears and wolves to insects, and—eventually--the forests. For at least the past 10, years, salmon have nourished humanity, too, shaping the cultures and economies of peoples all along the West Coast.

Over the past century, though, the immense runs of wild salmon have been decimated by overfishing, pollution and parasites from open-water net-pen salmon farms, and genetic dilution from hatchery salmon releases. Almost miraculously, some wild runs continue to thrive.

We believe that targeting only these abundant species and harvesting at a responsible level are the keys to saving salmon for the future. The responsible sourcing practices we use today have been developed in partnership with the Wild Fish Conservancy. All Patagonia Provisions salmon must be harvested from wild, self-sustaining populations rather than hatchery stocks or net-pen fish farms.

We only work with place-based fisheries where sound science can assess fish population status and needs, and which use techniques, location or timing to minimize bycatch. Preference is given to fisheries that maximize eating quality through careful, individual handling of fish and support the health of the environment and human communities.

Finally, all Provisions salmon are marketed with full transparency, including packaging that names the species, harvest location and type of gear used. Skip to content. Patagonia Worn Wear Provisions. We're in business to save our home planet. View all results.

Wild Sockeye Salmon Our Wild Sockeye Salmon comes from a community-based fishery in the icy waters of Alaska. NUTRITION: AN OCEAN SUPERFOOD Wild salmon is an excellent source of protein, and each serving of our wild sockeye contains mg of omega-3 fatty acids. SALMON SOURCING: THE POWER OF PLACE Place-based fisheries are based on the knowledge that every run, or stock, of wild salmon has evolved to return to the river of their birth to spawn.

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