The driving question over the last several years, and the one that’s being asked again as biologists warn that 2017 could be the lowest king salmon run on record, is: why is the king run on the Kuskokwim so low?
“The simple answer is we really don’t know,” said Zach Liller, leading Kuskokwim researcher for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. “We expected the return to be very similar to last year.”
That's when an estimated 177,000 kings swam up the river.
But instead, half-way through this season’s run, we’re seeing numbers similar to 2013, the year the king salmon stock crashed and about 94, 000 of the fish ran the Kuskokwim.
Why was the predicted run so much higher than the return? Locals were concerned that state fish biologists were being too optimistic months before the first kings showed up on the river. The models that predicted this season’s forecast are currently under review by third parties.
Fish and Game Commissioner Sam Cotton says that the state is discussing with federal managers how to provide fishing options for subsistence users while protecting the collapsing kings.
“We are considering an opportunity to allow drift gillnets to target sockeye and chum salmon," said Cotten, "and we recognize that’ll be some incidental catch involved with that. That if you’re using gillnets, that that’s just going to allow for some chinook take as well.”
So far this season, managers are seeing strong numbers for both sockeye and chum.
Commissioner Cotten said another option the state will consider is an elder opening. That’s when an elder goes fishing with a family member during a designated time to give elders a taste of fresh fish.
As to concerns that conservation efforts to avoid harvesting salmon could be depleting whitefish, ADF&G fishery manager Aaron Poetter said that the state cannot measure those numbers. It has no data on whitefish populations in the Kuskokwim. The best indicator they have to determine changes in these stocks is fishermen's observations.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is meeting with the Kuskokwim Inter-Tribal Fish Commission today to consider opening a gillnet opportunity.
You can listen to an in-depth interview with Commissioner Sam Cotten and state fishery biologists discussing the low king salmon run on this week's episode of Fish Talk, a talk show about fish on the Kuskokwim. The show is translated into Yup'ik.
