It is said that the Yukon River covers a lot of ground during its 22,000 miles journey to the ocean. The river’s headwaters are located in Northern British Columbia, just 50 miles away from Skagway. From there, the river travels across the Yukon crossing the border at Eagle and continues to flow through Interior Alaska until it finally gets to Bering Sea. Bering Sea.
For the duration of time that anyone can remember, salmon fed all throughout its journey.
“For the majority of our lives it was king salmon,” said Rhonda Pitka The village’s First Chief. Beaver located in the Upper Yukon Flats. “That was the major part of our diet, along with the things we traded, and the products we prepared.”
Pitka recalls the busy summers of her childhood with her family in their fishing camp, which was located ten miles from the village, helping her mother catch and process fish.
However, she isn’t able to keep the tradition going with her family.
Since the mid-1990s the runs of chum and king salmon — two main species that are harvested from the Yukon River — have been more uncertain. King salmon numbers have experienced an extended, slow decline, whereas chum runs have occasionally bounced back only to drop again. Both species are in the midst of a historic slump.
In the past three years, number of chum and king of salmon on the rivers have fallen to levels to levels so low that federal and state fisheries management has all but stopped subsistence fishing. The reasons for the decrease aren’t completely understood but scientists believe the parasite that targets kings and warming waters resulting from climate change caused by humans are likely causes. Harvesters are also responsible for for the decline in salmon bycatch as a result of the Bering Commercial Pollock Fishery in the Sea as well as the massive commercial chum salmon fishing industry in the Alaska Peninsula known as “Area M.”
The closures have had a devastating impact on communities that live along the river, according to Pitka who recalled trading caribou for salmon or muktuk with family members from Arctic Village and Utqiagvik back when the fish population was plentiful.
“It’s been a major challenge for families to procure enough food to last the winter months and to have enough food for sharing,” Pitka said.
The collapse of salmon is altering life in the Yukon -and not just in Alaska.
Communities in the upper Yukon which extends deep into Canada and beyond, have taken the majority of the losses caused by the collapse of salmon partly due to the fact that only a small fraction of fish travel to that distance further upriver. A few Canadian First Nations have been limiting fishing for several decades.
However it is true that it is true that the U.S. and Canada depend on one another to preserve this essential resource.
Pitka is on his position on the Yukon River Panel, a group comprised of people of both Alaska and Canada that provides advice to fishery managers from each side of the border. The panel was created through the landmark Yukon River Salmon Agreement, an agreement between that the U.S. and Canada signed in the early 2000s following nearly ten years of discussions. The treaty is designed to ensure an abundance of healthy salmon and access to fishing for the communities of both countries.
It’s been difficult to debate resource allocation for an area that’s not providing for anyone’s subsistence needs, Pitka said.
“Our Canadian counterparts haven’t fished for at minimum 20 years, if not more,” Pitka said. “And that’s a tragedy by itself. It’s been extremely difficult. It’s been very tension.”
As part of the accord, Alaska committed to letting certain numbers of fish migrate into Canada as per John Linderman, the panel’s U.S. co-chair.
“Each nation has its own responsibility in the treaty agreement,” Linderman said. “For Alaska, one of the most important obligations is to provide annually to the Canadian border with the goal of escapement as well as that is the Canadian portion of harvest.”
This means allowing enough fish to return to their spawning grounds in order to ensure a healthy population of salmon and, in more favorable seasons, making sure that a larger amount of fish cross the border in order to ensure the fairest harvest both across the river and back.
These requirements may appear to be a burden for Alaskans, according to Holly Carroll, the Alaska subsistence fisheries manager of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service – particularly during the past four years when the managers have severely restricted subsistence fishing. However, she added this is not the correct way to think about the issue.
“People will tell you”Just let us go fishing. I’m not taking more than I’m supposed to My family doesn’t allow me to take more than I require. Every family member will say that, and they’ll swear by it and are sincere,” Carroll said. “But there’s a problem If our runs aren’t sufficient to cater to everyone’s needs we need to shut down.”
In recent times, there isn’t enough salmon returning to the river to guarantee good runs in the near future. That means everyone who lives on the river – -Canadian and Alaskan Alaskan and Canadian has been forced to give up.
The treaty will keep both sides working together to safeguard their salmon. However, that doesn’t mean it’s an easy task, Pitka said.
She remembered a potlatch following two deaths that occurred at Stevens Village, near her village of Beaver. It was difficult to host an event without the traditional heart.
“It was difficult to watch families go without salmon to distribute at the potlatch table,” Pitka said. “There ought to have been salmon on every plate. They could have had the ability to distribute salmon to those who were departing.”
“That’s the connection to culture that we’re not getting,” she said. “The possibility to share our culture and provide our families with our traditional food items.”
