Pre-Season Prediction of Sockeye Salmon Runs on the Skeena River

Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhychrus nerka) of the Skeena River (British Columbia, Canada) display a high variability in population parameters from year to year. Investigation into the mechanisms which generate these variabilities is not only of benefit to the biologist in understanding the living system, but is also of great importance to the fishermen and his livelihood. It is the intent of this paper to outline the problem and to report results obtained in investigating some of the parameters of the sockeye population as part of the IIASA ecology project's case study on pacific salmon