B.C. sockeye run to hit 30 million

The number of sockeye salmon in British Columbia's Fraser River just keeps growing, with the estimate of this year's run now increased to 30 million.

The Pacific Salmon Commission forecast a run of about 25 million fish earlier this week but said Friday that the latest count indicates even more sockeye would return to the river this season.

If the estimate is correct, it would be the biggest sockeye run since 1913, when the run totalled about 39 million fish, the commission said in a news release.

In 2009, sockeye stocks appeared so depleted the federal government called an inquiry on the subject.

Former B.C. Supreme Court judge Bruce Cohen has been appointed to figure out what caused that collapse and will begin evidentiary hearings in September.

The sockeye returning this year were born in 2006 and left for the ocean in 2008.

The high return rate this year indicates a good food supply, favourable water temperatures and low predation during the time the fish were in the Pacific Ocean, the commission said.