VANCOUVER — British Columbia anglers have been standing shoulder to shoulder on stretches of the Fraser River this week, hoping to hook a sockeye salmon during a rare recreational opportunity to catch one of the tastiest and most prized salmon species.

But fisheries experts are cautioning that this year’s strong sockeye returns on the Fraser should not distract from longer-term declines in salmon populations.

The recreational opening comes amid a bumper run of sockeye on the Fraser that the joint Canada-US Pacific Salmon Commission predicted would be 9.1 million fish in a forecast issued on Friday, which would make it the biggest return since 2018.

William Cheung, an associate professor at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at the University of British Columbia, said it's a grea

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