July 14, 2010
Canadian fisheries managers appeal to conserve king salmon
State and federal fisheries managers are appealing to subsistence fishermen on the middle and upper Yukon River to voluntarily reduce the number of king salmon they catch, for fear that there is insufficient king salmon in the Yukon River and that the fish will not reach their Canadian spawning grounds.
"We are at the point where we're appealing for conservation measures," biologist Steve Hayes, who manages the Yukon king run for the Department of Fish and Game, said on Tuesday (July 13) in the Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association's weekly teleconference.
"Restrictions could be necessary if Canadian origin fish passage does not improve," Hayes said.
The news did not sit well with fishermen who have been hampered by high water and debris for the past week and are now just beginning to put their nets and fish wheels back in the water.
Making matters even more tense is the fact most fishermen on the lower river have caught all the king salmon they need for subsistence, as well as almost 9,000 "incidental" kings in commercial fishing openings for summer chum salmon, which they have been able to sell for CAD5 (US$4.84) per pound.
Fishermen on the middle and upper Yukon expressed frustration with managers during Tuesday's (July 13) teleconference.
"The department's management strategy is totally unfair to fishermen above Y1 and Y2," fishermen Mickey Stickman in Nulato said, referring to the areas on the lower Yukon where commercial fishing for summer chums has occurred. "They get to meet 100% of their subsistence needs, plus they get to commercial fish, plus they get to sell their incidental king catch.
"We don't get to meet our subsistence needs and then we get cut off," he said.
Stickman was not the only fisherman who was upset with the Department of Fish and Game's management of the chinook run.
Tanana fishermen Charlie Campbell said nobody in that village has even met 50% of their subsistence needs yet. Subsistence fishing, not commercial, should take priority, he said.
"From the upriver point of view it rankles to see that commercial fishery going on," Campbell said during Tuesday's (July 13) teleconference. "Those fish are being taken in the lower river at the expense of fishermen upriver."
While they are sympathetic, state fisheries managers say they do not have much choice at this point, given the low number of kings that have passed a sonar counter at Pilot Station, about 120 miles upstream from the mouth of the Yukon River.
The Pilot Station sonar count through (Monday) July 12 was approximately 110,000 fish, and the number of fish passing the sonar the last week has dropped significantly, making managers nervous they will not get enough fish to Canada as required by the Pacific Salmon Treaty, an international agreement between the US and Canada.
According to the treaty, Alaska managers are supposed to get somewhere between 42,500 and 55,000 fish past a sonar counter near the village of Eagle, about 16 miles downstream of the border.
Through Monday (July 12), the number of kings counted at the Eagle sonar stood at 294. The average for that date is about 1,900.
Because this year's king run was late, it is still too early to project how many fish will reach the border, but Hayes said there is "growing concern" it will not be enough.
Fishermen are being asked to reduce their king salmon harvest and focus more effort on summer chums where possible and to cut down on extended sharing with family members who do not live in the community.
Commercial fishermen have caught approximately 153,000 summer chum salmon in a dozen commercial openings and about 8,900 kings, Hayes said. Of the king harvest, Hayes said genetic testing indicates about 25% were bound for Canada.
At the same time, managers said there is a surplus of summer chums in the river and they want to give fishermen on the lower river a chance to net some income by catching those fish.
Approximately 1.3 million summer chums have passed the Pilot Station sonar so and biologists are projecting a run of about 1.5 million. Managers waited until about 75% of the king run was through the lower river before opening commercial fishing for summer chums, Hayes noted.
"We're probably going to take 150,000 to 200,000 chum when we could have probably have taken 400,000," he said.
The department is still planning at least one more commercial summer chum opener in district Y1 and two more in district Y2, Hayes said.
