A kokanee (Oncorhynchus nerka) is a land locked Sockeye or "red salmon" believed to be naturally occuring in some lakes from glaciers receding and daming of rivers. Kokanee salmon are landlocked salmon that live out their entire lives in freshwater. This is different from regular, ocean-going salmon. While regular salmon are born in fresh water, they eventually leave to spend most of their lives in the more productive salty waters of the ocean, returning to fresh water only as reproductively mature adults to spawn. Sometimes, when ocean-going sockeye salmon are using a lake system as their spawning area, a new strain of landlocked salmon develops. Instead of migrating hundreds of kilometres from their birthplace to the sea, and then back again to spawn, these new salmon (kokanee salmon) complete their entire life cycle within a lake system. Such is the case with the kokanee salmon of KNPR, which complete their entire life cycle in the fresh water of the Kathleen Lake watershed.
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