King Salmon Numbers Continue to Dwindle

This year, the Upper-Susitna river drainage is seeing the lowest number of returning King Salmon in over 25 years. 

Historically, the numbers have fluctuated depending on a variety of factors. The highest return-rate since the 1990s was in 2004, when over 55,000 Kings passed the Deshka River weir.  The number of Kings, making it up the river to spawn, began to decline after that, prompting the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to close the fishery to sport fish harvest in 2012.  Harvesting King Salmon in this drainage has remained closed for the past 14 seasons.

In 2021, it looked like the fish may be making a rebound. Over 18,000 fish were counted that year, but for each of the past four years, well under 6,000 kings have returned to spawn in the river system.

1,530 King Salmon passed the Deshka weir, as of July 21st this year. The sustainable escapement for the fishery is 9,000 to 18,000 fish.