BONNEVILLE DAM —Northwest salmon fishery managers have plenty to celebrate this fall: The region’s salmon runs shattered modern-day records this year, returning to the Columbia River Basin in the highest numbers since fish counting began at Bonneville Dam more than 75 years ago.

The sockeye salmon tally this year at the lower Columbia River’s Bonneville Dam on Tuesday, July 8, set a record for any season since the construction of the dam was completed in 1938 and the counts began. Mid-summer sockeye spawners counted passing Bonneville through Tuesday totaled 526,367, and counting.