As the Yukon River salmon season begins in 2024, there will once again be little to no opportunity for communities along the Western Alaska River to catch king salmon.
A small exception is the summer friend. If the run reaches half a million fish, residents of the lower Yukon may have the opportunity to hit the river with dip nets and other non-traditional gear for a short period, as they did in 2023.
But as Holly Carroll, Yukon River subsistence fisheries manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, noted in April, these types of opportunities may not be worth it for many along the river.
“Who is going to spend nine dollars a gallon to go fishing with a dip net?” —Carroll asked. “It might take them four or five hours to get seven friends. Whereas if they had been given their six-inch gillnet, they would take it out for a minute, a minute and a half and that’s it. They will have 100. Then they will spend the next few days cutting and smoking, and they will finish the season.”
While communities cannot count on these types of restricted opportunities to meet their subsistence needs in 2024, one thing they can count on is a complete closure of the Chinook salmon fishery over the next seven years. Carroll said the recently signed agreement between Alaska and Canada was behind schedule.
“For me, as a federal administrator, I see this as a bold step that needed to be taken. We’re just not seeing the returns from those races that we would have liked. I really felt like it was time,” Carroll said. “I also think we really needed to listen to our tribal stakeholders who have been telling us for years that this annual approach is not a good way to manage.”
The seven-year agreement calls for rebuilding Chinook populations to the point that at least 71,000 fish cross into Canada each year. It is not technically a moratorium, since reaching this figure at any time over the next seven years would theoretically lift the closure. But in 2024, fewer than 15,000 fish are expected to complete the journey.
Many believe trawler bycatch plays a huge role in preventing chinook and chum from returning to the Yukon River. But Carroll said the fish face many difficulties in terms of a changing environment.
“I think they’re dealing with a lot more climate changes, certainly warming oceans, different food sources, food is moving to different areas,” Carroll said. “We have seen less healthy fish. Their gas tanks are less full when they go to make that migration. “We’re seeing heat stress, we’re seeing warm temperatures when they hit the river.”
Since 2019, Carroll said Chinook numbers recorded in the upper Yukon River at Eagle have fallen dramatically below corresponding numbers downstream at Pilot Station. Biologists believe that one thing that could be killing them at some point on that nearly 1,100-mile journey is the Ichthyophonus parasite, which causes the disease.
According to a 2022 report by federal and state biologists for the Alaska Board of Fisheries, the severity of Ichthyophonus infections has been found to peak somewhere near the midpoint of the river in Alaska. But upstream, severely infected fish were rarely found, according to the report.
Carroll said scientists are also researching Chinook salmon eggs to try to identify potential threats to future populations. They want to know if low levels of the vitamin thiamine, which have been linked to early mortality in salmon, are further affecting the fish.
In 2024, the clock is ticking as scientists try to understand what is happening to Yukon River salmon. But as Carroll acknowledged, the clock is also ticking when it comes to communities along the river simply being able to feed themselves.
“How can we get more food for people? And if it is with selective equipment, how do we get people to use it? Because they are not traditional, they are not easy, they are not efficient,” Carroll said. “We all need to come to the table and figure out how to get some food to people and at the same time protect the chinook while we rebuild them.”
The first Chinook of the season are likely entering the lower Yukon River right now. Hopefully, they will reach their home streams, protected by the efforts of the communities to which they are inextricably connected.
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