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Federal Subsistence Board Holding Public Hearing On Kuskokwim King Salmon Management

A subsistence fisherman harvests a king salmon from the lower Kuskokwim River during a gillnet opening on June 12, 2018.
Katie Basile
/
KYUK

The Federal Subsistence Board has scheduled a public hearing for May 6 on a proposal to put Kuskokwim River king salmon harvest under federal management starting June 1. The proposal follows a forecast from state biologists for another low king salmon run. Federal officials have managed the Kuskokwim king fishery since 2014 to help conserve the species.

State biologists with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game forecast the number of king, or chinook, salmon returning to the Kuskokwim this summer will be similar to the number that returned last year. About 116,000 kings returned in 2020, though the predicted run that year was much higher at 193,000 to 261,000 kings.

“So that’s far less than the estimate said, and less returning chinook can really mean less fish available for fishers to catch. So that made it a difficult year for fishers,” Orutsararmiut Native Council Fisheries Biologist Katie Russell said.

ONC and ADF&G collaborated on surveying fishers along the Kuskokwim to develop an estimate of how many salmon of each species were harvested in 2020. Russell shared the preliminary data on Coffee at KYUK. Last summer’s poor fishing was reflected in the total catch of all salmon species on the Kuskokwim. In 2019, fishers caught 165,000 salmon of all species from the Kuskokwim.

“Which is about 14,000 more salmon than was caught in 2020. In 2020, harvest along the Kuskokwim was about 151,000,” Russell said.

The past three decades on the Kuskokwim show a steady decline in the harvest of king salmon. In the 1990s, the estimated average harvest of kings was 93,000 per year along the river. In the 2000s, king harvest fell to an estimated 87,000 per year.

“Then from 2010 to 2018, that estimated Chinook harvest was about 36,000. So this really shows there has been a steady decrease, and we see this trend happening in 2019 and 2020 as well with less Chinook harvest happening,” Russell said.       

Russel said that the same decline is also found in the numbers of chums caught on the Kuskokwim over the last 30 years. The number of red and silver salmon harvests have remained steady on the Kuskokwim River over the past three decades.

The Federal Subsistence Board public hearing on May 6 is scheduled for 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Toll Free Teleconference: 888-790-3358
Passcode: 6663156

Editor's note: The Federal Subsistence Board updated the teleconference number and passcode on this story on May 5. KYUK reflected those changes on this web story on May 5.

Johanna Eurich's vivid broadcast productions have been widely heard on National Public Radio since 1978. She spent her childhood speaking Thai, then learned English as a teenager and was educated at a dance academy, boarding schools and with leading intellectuals at her grandparents' dinner table in Philadelphia.
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