Hunting & Fishing

Greg Roczicka died Sunday night at his home in Bethel at the age of 61. His death is a loss for the community. Roczicka grew up on the Kuskokwim, living a subsistence lifestyle and dedicating his career to championing and preserving the way of life that he loved and knew the region depended on.

Over the past several years, fishery managers have placed extremely tight harvest restrictions on king salmon fishing in the Yukon River. The hope is that conservation will lead to larger runs. When managers make those decisions - telling fishermen when and where they can fish and what gear they can use - they need to know how those measures affect subsistence harvests; they need samples of the fish. The state is working with subsistence fishermen in a voluntary program to get those samples.

A new study is using fish ear bones to trace where Kuskokwim king salmon are hatching to help managers better manage the fishery.

Welcome to Fish Talk, a new call-in show about fish on the Kuskokwim. Today we're talking about how scientists are using ear bones from king salmon to trace where the kings are hatching, and how that information could change when and where we fish.