Yukon River king salmon run could be weaker than expected
7/4/07
Tim Bodony (KIYU)

 
Original audio version of the story

Many subsistence fishermen on the middle and upper part of the Yukon River are starting to wonder if their subsistence needs will be met this year.   

The king return appears to be much lower than expected, and many upriver fishermen are upset about the amount of commercial fishing that took place during the early part of the run.   

Koyukuk elder Benedict Jones’ luck has been about the same as everyone else’s along the middle Yukon this past week:    

Jones:  "I fished 16 hours to catch 10 fish.” 

A tough day’s worth of fishing, at a time when it’s common to catch 3 times as many fish in a third of the time.  

He and others point towards the commercial fishing periods allowed by Fish and Game on the lower Yukon as one of, it not thee major explanation for their poor subsistence catches so far.   

Commercial permit holders took 29 thousand kings between the mouth and Anvik, about 200 miles upriver, through June 30^th.   

The first kings to enter the Yukon are usually the best quality – many of them loaded up with enough fat to fuel a 2000 mile trip to spawning grounds in Canada - so Jones and other fishermen upriver are especially upset to see so many of those first kings harvested commercially. 

But since they started noticing that the king run was acting strangely, ADF&G decided to hold off on any further commercial openings.   

Gene Sandone is the Yukon region supervisor for ADF&G Commercial Fisheries.   

Sandone:  “We have a really weird run coming into the river this year. We usually have pulses of fish, 3 or 4 pulses.  This year, we had one really strong pulse early, and there was a large amount of fish in that pulse. And then it became more a constant almost trickle.  It never really got low, but it never really got very high.”   

The preseason assessment of the Yukon king run suggested that there would be enough fish for escapement to the spawning grounds, subsistence needs, border passage obligations to Canada, and allow for a commercial harvest of between 30 thousand and 60 thousand fish. 

But uncertain if the king run will finish strongly enough to meet those goals, 

Sandone explains that the state is taking a “wait and see approach” to the management of the fishery now…and does not rule out additional commercial fishing periods if conditions allow.

Sandone:  “You don’t want to close the fishery until you know what may be coming. We don’t fish in the lower Yukon for awhile, see what comes in the river.  If we do see a large pulse of fish coming into the river, like what is happening in Bethel right now…we’d have to reconsider if we want to fish in the lower river for chum salmon, with an incidental catch of Chinook” 

Sandone thinks there is a chance that the Yukon king run will finish strong, similar to what has happened on Nushagak and Kuskokwim this year, and a large pocket of unusually cold water in the Bering Sea that could be preventing kings from entering the Yukon. 

Russ Holder, the Yukon In-season Manager for the US Fish and Wildfire Service, thinks that scenario is possible, but unlikely.   

Holder has recommended to his state counterparts that, due to the large unmet subsistence need of upriver residents, more commercial openings of any kind on the lower Yukon shouldn’t even be an option for the rest of the king run.   

Holder:  “we’ve reached or passed the ¾ point of the run coming in the Yukon river mouth, and looking at all the years in total, it would be very unlikely that we would see a large enough surge or pulse at this time to warrant additional commercial fishing, in my mind.” 

Unless the king run takes another unexpected turn over the next few days, Holder just can’t see how the numbers can add up.  Both the State and Federal managers agree that the Pilot Station sonar counter – located upstream from the commercial fishing hotspots on the Yukon Delta – might count as few as 120 thousand kings this year.   

Holder:  “And it’s unlikely with that number that we would be able to provide for a normal subsistence harvest, which is usually around 50 thousand fish.  And meet Alaska escapement needs, which can range from 50 thousand to 100 thousand fish…and provide for border passage into Canada.”   

Holder estimates that 40 thousand kings need to make it to Canada, in order to satisfy requirements of the US-Canada Yukon River salmon treaty.   

Though commercial openings on the lower Yukon are on hold, subsistence fishing schedules up and down the Yukon have not been affected yet.