More endangered sockeye salmon have made the 900-mile journey from the Pacific Ocean to central Idaho's high-elevation Redfish Lake this fall than in any previous year going back nearly six decades.

Some 1,400 fish have returned so far from a population that in the 1990s barely survived -- some years with no returning fish -- ultimately becoming the focus of an intense state and federal effort to pull the unique population back from extinction.

The news comes at the same time as Northwest fishery managers report other record, or near-record runs this fall.

More than 600,000 sockeye salmon have leapt Bonneville Dam's fish ladders on the lower Columbia River – most heading to the Okanagan River in north central Washington. And scientists continue to expect a huge fall Chinook run as well, perhaps equaling last year's 1.27 million record.

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