Bigger salmon and more of them are being encountered by fishermen throughout the Pacific Northwest - early signs, perhaps of a major turnaround in ocean survival rates.

The early signals were first detected in June, when sports anglers off the southcoast of British Columbia's Vancouver Island began to routinely catch chinook salmon in the 20-25 pound range.

Throughout the summer, big chinook were taken in many places along the B.C. coast, culiminating in August with the capture of an 82 lb. chinook in Naden Harbour, on the Queen Charlotte Islands.

Steve Johnson, of Rolling Hills, California, caught the remarkable salmon while fishing with guide, Bob McAuley, at Queen Charlotte Lodge.

At about the same time, fishermen in the Fraser River were reporting that the sockeye they were taking were all fat and in superb shape. Typically the fish were two to three pounds larger than they had been before.

"Some of these fish are so big it makes you wonder if they've stayed out in the ocean and extra year," said Danny Gerak, owner of Pitt Lake Resort. "We haven't seen fish that look this good in years."

The trend continued down the coast to the Columbia River, where the coho were in noticeably better condition.

``Every one of these fish looks fat, and they look healthy,'' Doug Milward, a Washington state biologist told the media. ``In the past decade, we've not seen that.''

In addition to early signs of big, healthy spawners returning to rivers from northern British Columbia to Oregon, biologists have also recently found that the survival rate for juvenile fish has suddenly jumped. A survey in the Strait of Georgia, between mainland B.C. and Vancouver Island, found three times as many young fish. The Strait is a key rearing area for salmon before they head north into the Gulf of Alaska, and for the past several years the mortality rate in the area has been extremely high.

Many biologists have identified ocean survival as the key factor in the drastic decline in both Pacific and Atlantic salmon stocks over the past decade.

On the Pacific Coast, some scientists have concluded that juvenile salmon were simply starving to death, because a shortage of feed.

Some long term climate studies suggest the Pacific Ocean is due for a major temperature shift to colder water. Over the past decade salmon have been devastated by warm ocean temperatures, which brought in predators - like mackeral - while reducing deep ocean upwellings that forced upwellings of plankton to the surface.

The returns of big, healthy salmon aren't conclusive, but it could be an early sign that the Pacific is now on the rebound.

Story by Mark Hume and Photography Queen Charlotte Lodge