This is likely to turn out to be a low-grade year for the king salmon that when it returns to one of the main rivers that comprise Southeast Alaska in 2024.
The Alaska Department of Fish & Game released the 2024 Southeast Alaska Chinook Salmon forecasts in the last week.
Of the 11 chinook stock within the region of the region, only the Chilkat River is expected to contain a sufficient amount of Chinook that return for spawn. But this figure – also known as escapement is still somewhere in mid-range of spectrum, and could fall lower depending on the number of fish caught before they reach the river.
The Alaska Department of Fish & Game has formulated actions plans to restrict the catches of king salmon destined to Southeast Rivers, but some are never caught.
But, ADF&G Assessment Biologist Philip Richards suggests that excessive harvest is not the issue.
“There is a level of harvesting for all of the Southeast reserves,” said Richards. “However in the last five years in particular the rates of harvest have been very low for all our stocks. This suggests that the harvest isn’t responsible for the low abundance – it’s more likely due to due to marine conditions.”
The survival of marine life is “the million-dollar problem” According to Richards. Numerous factors could be at play in the ocean, however the Southeast’s chinook runs have dropped previously, and the reason is not clear.
“Some of our projects to escape chinooks began in the beginning of the 1970s. In that period the rate of escapement was extremely small,” Richards said. “Once again we don’t know the reason. It was a time (of very few escapements). We don’t exactly how long it ran before we began the assessment of stock.”
Alongside Chilkat, and in addition to Chilkat In addition, only the Unuk River in southern Southeast is predicted to hit its escapement goal, but only at the lower end, with 1 800 kings returning to spawn. It is expected that the Taku River near Juneau should have a return of over 17,000 large fish which is less than 2,000 of the minimum. The department didn’t have enough information to estimate the amount of fish that would be caught in the Stikine River near Wrangell, however, it is expected to be significantly lower than the minimum of 14,000 fish.
The Alaska Board of Fisheries has identified seven of the Southeast Alaska’s wild Chinook runs in the region as “stocks that are of particular concern.” These are The Chilkat, Taku, King Salmon, Stikine, Unuk and Chickamin rivers as well as Andrew Creek.
