KETCHUM, Idaho (AP) — A record number of sockeye salmon returned to central Idaho this year, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game said.

The 833 fish is the largest return since the agency started keeping records in 1985. Officials said that, historically, up to 30,000 sockeye spawned in the Sawtooth Valley's Alturas, Pettit, Yellowbelly, Redfish and Stanley lakes.

Numbers have plummeted over the decades, and sockeye were the first Idaho salmon listed under the Endangered Species Act. The federal government started a captive breeding program in the 1990s to stave off extinction.

Young fish, called smolts, are reared in hatcheries and then released to make the trip to the ocean. Returning several years later as adults, the fish travel some 900 miles up the Columbia, Snake and Salmon rivers to reach the Stanley Basin at an elevation of over 6,500 feet.

"This is a big boost to the program and the smolt release program is starting to show good returns," Dan Baker, the department's Eagle Fish Hatchery manager, told the Idaho Mountain Express in a story published Wednesday. "We're moving in the right direction and doing the best we can with what's available."

He said that over the last several years the program released between 150,000 and 175,000 sockeye smolts. More fish heading to the ocean can mean more surviving their journey to return to central Idaho.

Baker said the department would like to increase smolt production to be able to release up to 1 million annually. But he said it would have to expand a hatchery, which is years from happening.

Adult sockeye that didn't become part of the hatchery program this fall were released into Redfish Lake and other lakes in the area to spawn naturally.

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Information from: Idaho Mountain Express