One of these ESUs, Snake River, was listed as endangered in November 1991. In March 1998, the Ozette Lake ESU was proposed as threatened and the Baker River ESU was designated as a candidate species. Species Biology Sockeye salmon belong to the family Salmonidae and are one of seven species of Pacific salmonids in the genus Oncorhynchus .
Sockeye salmon are anadromous, meaning they migrate from the ocean to spawn in fresh water.
They are the third most abundant of the seven species of Pacific salmon, after pink and chum salmon. Sockeye salmon exhibit a wide variety of life history patterns that reflect varying dependency on the fresh water environment. For this reason, the major distribution and abundance of large sockeye salmon stocks are closely related to the location of rivers that have accessible lakes in their watersheds for juvenile rearing. There are also O . Non-anadromous O . nerka in the Pacific Northwest are known as kokanee.