“…Because much of the habitat closer to shore (within <5 m) is subtidal and can be sampled with the 9 m or 5 m deep purse seines, an association with locations closer to shore suggests that fish were found in higher abundances in subtidal nearshore habitat on channel margins compared with open water between landforms. In other estuaries, larger sub‐yearlings and yearling Chinook and coho salmon are associated with deeper channel or channel margin habitats (10–15 m deep; (Gamble et al, ; Pinnix, Nelson, Stutzer, & Wright, ; Roegner et al, ), whereas smaller fry or sub‐yearling Chinook are associated with shallow nearshore habitat (<3 m deep; Bottom, Jones, et al, ; Hering et al, ; Roegner et al, ; Simenstad et al, ). As both, coho (73–242 mm) and Chinook (85–185 mm) salmon found in the Skeena River estuary are primarily larger age classes (subyearling or ≥1 age class—using designations from Roegner et al, and Weitkamp et al, ), results from this study are comparable to findings from other estuaries.…”