Yukon River King Salmon Run Looking Terrible - Feds May Cut Subsistence Fishing - ADN

[hatrack]

FAIRBANKS - This year's king salmon run on the Yukon River could be one of the worst, forcing federal fisheries managers to curtail subsistence fishing.

"This is really a serious situation," Russ Holder, a fisheries biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner on Monday. "If the run does not significantly improve, folks upriver are going to have difficulty reaching 50 percent of their subsistence harvest goals this year for chinook salmon."

People living along Alaska's biggest waterway seek out the oil-rich Yukon kings to put up for the winter. "That's what most people are targeting," Holder said. The low return of Yukon kings prompted state and federal fish managers to cut subsistence time in half, a restriction that took effect Monday.

EDIT

As of Sunday, the sonar count at Pilot Station was just 30,200 king salmon, said Steve Hayes of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The average sonar count for that date is about 63,000, he said. Biologists now are projecting a run of fewer than 100,000 kings at Pilot Station. The minimum number required for escapement purposes in Alaska and Canada and subsistence harvest is 130,000.

EDIT

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/445309.html

[Blue_In_AK]

1. The Deshka in the Mat-Su Valley

is having problems, as well. Runs on the Kenai Peninsula seem to be okay.

[bahrbearian]

2. How are the Port Moller Kings doing?

[Blue_In_AK]

5. Here's a link that might help.

http://www.apcfa.org/

I'm working on a big job right now and can't go into it further, but this might give some info.

[bahrbearian]

6. thanks for the link, Its a new one for me.

[Blue_In_AK]

7. I just pulled it up when I googled Point Moller,

but it looks like a good one.

[JohnWxy]

3. the Coho is already extinct. The last four dams put up on the Salmon is what's put the final nail

in the Salmon's coffin.

[Blue_In_AK]

4. Coho aren't extinct in Alaska. n/t