Chinook salmon return doesn’t look encouraging

The return of chinook salmon on the Yukon River isn't looking good, as predicted.

The return of chinook salmon on the Yukon River isn’t looking good, as predicted.

In their preparation of conservation measures, fishery biologists on both sides of the Yukon-Alaska border have been saying for months that this year’s return would be another consecutive season of below-average numbers.

At this time, there are no plans to open a commercial or sport fishery for chinook in the Yukon, senior biologist Sandy Johnston of the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans said last Thursday.

He said it’s also looking like Yukon first nations along the river will again be asked to reduce their subsistence food catch by 50 per cent.

“The one assessment point we kind of keep our eye on in the lower river is the sonar count at Pilot Station, which is a couple of hundred kilometres up from the mouth,” Johnston said.

“The total chinook was estimated at 35,000, and the average for that date, the 24th of June, is 75,000.”

He pointed out that last year’s poor run was equally dismal at this point, but still slightly higher at 36,500 by June 24.

The first of the Yukon-bound chinook should be reaching the Yukon-Alaska border near Eagle, Alaska this week, and Dawson City within days of that, he said.

Both Alaska and the Yukon have taken steps in recent years to curtail or close their commercial chinook fisheries.

For the first time last year, Alaskan authorities started curtailing the subsistence fishery, which is passionately embraced by both aboriginal and non-aboriginal Alaskans who rely on the salmon as a primary food source.

This year, with another commitment by Alaska to take more steps to minimize the catch of Yukon-bound chinook, the state has cut into the subsistence fishery even more.

Johnston said state officials are even micro-managing one early portion of the chinook migration by ensuring all fishing is closed as the fish make their way up the river.

The goal is to deliver a minimum of 45,000 Yukon chinook to the spawning beds. Last year, it’s estimated 34,008 made it.

Alaska’s annual harvest by its subsistence fishery has typically averaged 50,000 or more chinook. The harvest dropped to about 45,311 last summer.

Yukon first nations, on the other hand, took 2,885, or just under half the average catch of 6,000 through the previous 10 years.

Dan Bergstrom, regional management biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said this year’s measures to further reduce the subsistence harvest is meant to chop the annual catch by about 25 per cent, or some 12,000 chinook.

Bergstrom said he believes efforts over the winter to inform the subsistence fishery about the need to make more cutbacks has lessened the resistance.

“I think they get the idea of why but I do not think they like having to do it,” he said, noting that many depend on the annual fishery to actually put food on the table.

With the reduced catch, there’s a need to look at ways to lessen the blow, he said.

Bergstrom said he hopes disaster funding for those who lost fish camps and such in this spring’s harsh breakup of the Yukon River will help take away some of the bite this year.