The flow of endangered sockeye salmon into central Idaho's Stanley basin has slowed, but the last few stragglers serve to pad a record return to the hatchery program that is keeping the species alive.

Through Wednesday, a total of 555 spawners have returned to the basin. The previous high count was 257 returns Sawtooth Hatchery or Redfish Lake Creek and it was by far the biggest return to Snake River Sockeye Salmon Captive Broodstock Program. The next highest total is 27.

The program was started in 1991 preserve the species' genetics and attempt to rebuild a stock at the threshold of extinction. Only 16 naturally produced anadromous sockeye salmon returned to the basin between 1991 and 1998, the last in 1998.

This year's overall 2008 Columbia River basin sockeye return has been a big and pleasant surprise. Through Wednesday 213,591 sockeye had been counted passing Bonneville Dam's fish ladders on the lower Columbia, most of them headed for the Okanogan and Wenatchee rivers in central Washington. Both are tributaries to Columbia. That count is nearly four times the recent 10-year average of 53,376.

But the Snake River fish have been a bigger surprise. The count at the lower Snake River's Lower Granite Dam totals 890 through Wednesday. That's 16.5 times the 10-year average of only 54 fish. Lower Granite is the last of eight hydro projects the sockeye must pass on a 900-mile freshwater migration up the Columbia, Snake and Salmon rivers.

The Snake River sockeye returned to the Stanley basin in a steady stream. The number of fish trapped daily between Aug. 2 and Aug. 27 ranged from nine to 42 fish. Over this past week only 10 were trapped. Some 400 miles downstream, the last sockeye was counted passing lower Granite on Aug. 27.

The trapped fish are trucked to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game's Eagle Fish Hatchery near Boise and held until they are ready to spawn and until genetic samples can be analyzed. The goal is to select fish to bring into the hatchery to be spawned that would best help diversify the gene pool.

Federal, state and tribal officials were on hand in Idaho high country to Tuesday to witness the release of more than 30 of the returning fish into Redfish Lake. The officials also celebrated the recent opening of an expanded Eagle hatchery help in the collaborative effort boost the sockeye population.

The remaining fish will find out their destination soon.

"We're getting closer. We're still in the process of reviewing the genetics in these last few fish that have come in," said Eagle Fish Hatchery manager Dan Baker. He said he expects 70-100 of the 2008 arrivals to be incorporated into the program. The rest would be released to spawn.

"We're still looking at putting most of them in Redfish Lake," Baker said. They will join about 278 spawning-ready sockeye reared to adulthood at NOAA Fisheries Service's Manchester facility in Washington. The fish were produced from Snake River sockeye eggs.

"Obviously what we release we want to release as soon as possible" to allow them time to hunt down suitable spawning areas, Baker said. The release of the Manchester fish is planned next week and the remaining anadromous returns the following week.

The IDFG develops the release plan in consultation with NOAA and the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes.

Most of the 2008 spawners -- 403 -- are tagged and fin clipped fish that were reared in hatcheries and released from either Sawtooth Hatchery or in Redfish Lake Creek in the Stanley Basin in 2006 as 2-year-old smolts ready to migrate toward the ocean. Twenty are the result of pre-smolt releases into nearby Redfish, Pettit and Alturus lakes.

Another 132 of the returns are unmarked sockeye, which means they are either the offspring of adult spawners released into Redfish Lake in 2004, from residual sockeye spawners in the lakes or from fertilized eggs planted in the lakes. Residual sockeye are fish that normally complete their life cycle in fresh water but can opt for a trip to the ocean before returning to spawn.

The relatively high number of unmarked returns "shows that some of these other programs are working," Baker said. The emphasis has been on producing smolts, which have shown the best return rates.

Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter and officials with Idaho Fish and Game, the tribes, the Bonneville Power Administration and NOAA Fisheries released the fish Tuesday as part of the ongoing collaborative effort.

"This morning we put some red back in Redfish Lake,"said Fish and Game Director Cal Groen at a ceremony at the Eagle Hatchery later that day.

"These fish are so special. They are part of the landscape."

Later in the day, officials dedicated a new sockeye salmon broodstock facility at the Eagle hatchery. The recent expansion doubles the hatchery's capacity to maintain adult sockeye broodstock and triples the hatchery's ability to produce sockeye eggs.

"This is a safety net," Otter said. "This is an example of the untold good we can accomplish if we come together and set aside our biases and prejudices."

The building, which cost nearly $4 million, was paid for by BPA. It has 14,400 square feet of space and will allow IDFG to raise 700 adult brood fish and produce 800,000 to 1 million eggs.

Nathan Small of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes recalls when the red fish of Red Fish Lake was just about extinct and when the tribes filed a petition to list the fish as endangered.

The fate of the fish depends on what states, tribes and federal agencies working together will do, he said.

"The result is we have this place here," Small said. "This is what we're going to do with this fish -- we're not going to let it go extinct."

The new hatchery building is an important part of salmon recovery, BPA Director Stephen Wright said.

"But we can't stop here," he said. The agency also is working on habitat restoration and downstream survival through the eight federal hydropower dams on the lower Snake and Columbia rivers.

"Something were doing in the region is working," he said, pointing to the building behind him holding 549 sockeye in tanks.

The sockeye captive breeding program was started in May 1991, months before the fish was listed in November of that year under the Endangered Species Act.

For more information on the sockeye program visit the Fish and Game Web site at: http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/cms/fish/sockeye/.