Every productive natural Sockeye population I am aware of runs on a fairly predictable 4 year cycle of boom and bust. That suggests that there is something that naturally dampens high returns of sockeye adults from ocurring every year. This is almost certainly a freshwater biological predator/prey/forage interaction issue.

A hatchery that dumps out high numbers of juveniles into the lake every year is contrary to how sockeye typically work. Years of low juvenile abundance may be essential to set the table for years of high returns. This was a predictable outcome that several of us commented on here when the hatchery was promoted as the great solution.