Yukon Kings Are Coming
6-15-07
Tim Bodony (KIYU)

King and summer chum salmon are working their way up the Yukon River, and fisheries managers predict that their numbers will be average at best this year.

While the requirements for fish passage upriver, and subsistence needs have largely been met over the past 5 years, the Yukon River king commercial harvest is only a fraction of what is once was.  

Last year’s commercial harvest of 46 thousand kings on the lower Yukon was the sixth lowest on record, going back to 1959.   Commercial fishermen on the Alaska portion of the Yukon have routinely harvested more than 100 thousand fish in a season, as recently as 1997.  In 1981, the harvest hit an all-time high of 158 thousand fish. 

This year, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game expects that lower river commercial fishermen will take between 30 and 60 thousand fish, and the first commercial fishing period for kings is scheduled for tonight (Friday).   

The opening will last for 3 hours in District 2, which includes the villages of St Mary’s, Mountain Village and Marshall.   

Steve Hayes is the ADF&G Yukon River Summer In-Season Manager, currently based in Emmonak.    

Hayes explains that even though this commercial opening is happening before many upriver subsistence users have even seen a fish – it wont make a big dent in the king run overall. 

Hayes: “This is an opening we did in 2006, and it seemed to work out well for buyers and fishermen to get some fish on the market early…kind of put a place-holder in the marketplace for the Yukon River king name. I don’t anticipate that there’s a large amount of fish that will be caught in that opening.”   

Hayes predicts that the next commercial opening could take place during the middle of next week.  However that depends on the data that comes in from the Pilot Station sonar counter and the various test nets over the weekend, to show if the run is strong enough to justify more commercial openings.  

Yukon River kings went almost entirely to Japan until recently, when a domestic marketing effort was launched.  Yukon kings are now a popular menu item at upscale seafood restaurants like the Oceannaire, which has locations in Seattle, Indianapolis, Dallas, Minneapolis and other major cities. 

Logistical challenges in delivering the fish, and uncertainties about if and when commercial openings will happen on the lower Yukon, have limited the Yukon kings’ penetration into the US market.  

But Hayes is seeing a new technique cropping up, which tries to eliminate the middle man and get fish directly to consumers. 

Hayes: “We have the same amount of buyers that we have had for the past few years. What we are seeing this year is 3 or 4 new direct marketing [efforts], which are commercial fisherman that have commercial permits, and sell their own fish to markets.”   

The State still classifies Yukon River king salmon as a stock of yield concern.  The Board of Fisheries first attached that label in 2000, when Yukon River king returns bottomed out to historically low levels. 

Hayes explains that the “Stock of Yield Concern” classification means that managers have to be very cautious, and that even after 7 years of careful management, the Yukon king stock is not bouncing back to the bountiful levels seen in the 70s and 80s.  

Hayes: “The annual subsistence harvest remains stable near about 50,000 king salmon. The commercial harvest has decreased over 60 percent in recent years. So in continued response to the extremely poor runs since 2000, conservative management strategies are still in effect for Yukon king salmon.  At their January/February 2007 meeting, the Board of Fisheries continued the Stock of Yield Concern [status], based on the inability, despite the use of our specific management measures, to maintain expected yields or harvestable surpluses above escapement needs since 1998.”   

Yukon River Summer and Fall Chum salmon also declined in number earlier this decade.  The Board of Fish classified them both as stocks of management concern.  But as chum stocks have rebounded over the past 3 years, the Board of Fish discontinued those labels at its January 2007 meeting. 

ADF&G will continue to sample for the fish parasite Ichthyophonus in king salmon caught in test net fisheries this year. 

Last year’s sampling efforts showed that 16 percent of Yukon Kings entered the river with the parasite- which is not harmful to humans, but discolors the meat and makes it difficult to dry smoke.   

The Ichthyophonus infection rate is down from 2005, when close to 25 percent of kings sampled at Emmonak showed signs of infection.