A minimum of 42,500 chinook are supposed to get to their Canadian spawning waters to meet conservation goals. Only 15,300 of those fish made it to Eagle, near the Yukon border.

Scientists looking at salmon found in Arctic waters are still asking northern harvesters and fishers to submit any unusual catches in exchange for compensation. It's part of the Arctic Salmon Project, which is a collaborative effort involving Fisheries and Oceans Canada, scientists from the South and local hunters and trappers organizations.

"It's the first time I guess the whole town seeing a shark in real [life]," he said. "Must have been just about the whole town that come to see it." The shark is likely a salmon shark, typically found around Alaska and B.C.

Salmon used to be infrequent visitors to the Mackenzie River and communities of the Arctic, but more species have begun to show up in the North more often and in greater numbers than ever before.