A king salmon migrates up Ship Creek in the company of pink, chum and silver salmon. USFWS/Katrina Mueller
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is tightening restrictions on fishing for king salmon in the Susitna River drainage for this year. KTNA’s Phillip Manning spoke with a department official as well as the owner of a local guide service about what the changes will mean.
Fishing regulations are serious business in Alaska. Aside from the fishing industry itself, tightening of sport fishing rules has significant implications for tourism, which is a major part of the economy of the Northern Susitna Valley. The biggest draw for anglers to the Susitna area is the king salmon. This year, however, regulations on fishing for kings, issued Tuesday by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, will get even tighter.
On streams where harvest of kings was allowed last year, notably the Deshka River, the rules are changing to catch and release only. Waterways where catch and release was already the rule will be completely closed to king salmon fishing. Matt Miller, Fish and Game’s sport fish coordinator for the Cook Inlet Region, says the projections for this year’s king run just aren’t high enough.
“The forecast for the Deshka River…is lower than the escapement goal. There is an escapement goal…of 13,000 to 28,000, and the forecast is about 200 below that.”
Matt Miller says that Fish and Game isn’t sure exactly what’s wrong with the king salmon runs.
“What the research is pointing to is that the largest problem seems to be after the kings are leaving fresh water and that first year or so that they’re having in salt water. That seems to be where we’re seeing this large mortality, and we don’t know why yet.”
Mat Miller adds that the Department of Fish and Game doesn’t expect these runs to be the new normal. He says the department recognizes the economic impacts that shutting down king harvest can have, but that the goal is future sustainability.
“Ultimately, the department’s obligation is to manage these stocks for sustainability. While the economic impacts weigh into it, the ultimate, final line is: Would it be sustainable? Are we doing what we need to do for the resource?”
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is required by law to provide for sustainable salmon populations. Jerry Sousa, owner of Talkeetna Fishing Guides, says the closure will hurt, but that it’s the right thing to do if it means the fish come back in future years.
“It hurts, financially, I’m sure. I mean, we lost half our business when they closed kings early on for us. But, it’s something that needs to happen. We need to tighten our belt another notch, and hopefully the king salmon will come back.”
Sousa says his business has been focusing on trout fishing and other salmon species during the multiple years of restricted king salmon fishing. He says that, whether because of conservation measures or natural causes, other salmon runs flourished last year.
“The Department of Fish and Game has done an excellent job—or maybe we just got really luck last year. We had, I felt, really good silver and Sockeye runs last year. Clear Creek saw more Sockeyes than I’ve ever seen in my being whole life up here in Alaska forty-plus years.”
Some sport-fishing advocates are pushing back on the new regulations, however, including legislators. Senator Mike Shower said on his official social media that he and other Mat-Su legislators asked Fish and Game Commissioner Sam Cotten to allow the king season to open, and close it if real-time data showed that the run would not meet sustainability requirements.
As it is, the opposite is true. For now, harvesting of kings is out, with the exception of the Eklutna Tailrace and parts of the Little Susitna River a few days a week. Matt Miller says that may not be the final verdict, however, and, if numbers are higher than expected, there might be a king salmon season in the Susitna Valley after all.
