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Significant to all fishing sectors, sockeye were the first salmon to be commercially fished in the Pacific Region and were the first salmon to be canned in quantity, beginning in the 1870s.

Sockeye can mature at ages between two and six years old but in most systems, one age group (usually four-year-old fish) dominates, meaning most of the offspring produced in any one brood-year return to spawn four years later. This year of increased population significance creates a cyclic dominance which leads to spectacular returns to the Adams River every four. Although there are many ideas about why this occurs, nobody knows for sure.