Yukon River communities balance conservation and survival amid near-total salmon fishing closures

As the 2024 Yukon River salmon season begins, communities along Alaska's western river will once again have little to no opportunity to harvest salmon.

A small exception is the summer buddy. If the run reaches half a million fish, residents of the lower Yukon might have the chance to take to the river with dip nets and other non-traditional gear for a brief period, as they did in 2023.

But as Holly Carroll, Yukon River subsistence fisheries manager for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, pointed out in April, these types of opportunities may not be worth it for many along of the river.

“Who’s going to spend nine dollars a gallon to go fishing with a dip net? ” asked Carroll. “It might take them four or five hours to find seven friends. Whereas if they had received their six-inch gillnet, they would have released it for a minute, a minute and a half, and that was it. They'll get 100. Then they'll spend the next two days cutting and smoking, and that's it for the season.

Although communities cannot count on these types of heavily restricted opportunities to meet their livelihood needs in 2024, they can count on a total closure of the Chinook salmon fishery for the next seven years. Carroll said the recently signed Alaska-Canada agreement is overdue.

“For me, as a federal manager, I view this as a bold step that needed to be taken. We're just not seeing the returns on these 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 great way to manage.”

The seven-year agreement calls for rebuilding Chinook stocks to the point where at least 71,000 fish enter Canada each year. Technically, this is not a moratorium, as reaching this figure at any time in the next seven years would theoretically lift the shutdown. But in 2024, fewer than 15,000 fish are expected to make the journey.

Many believe that trawl bycatch plays a significant role in preventing chinook and chum from returning to the Yukon River. But Carroll said fish face many challenges in terms of a changing environment.

“I think they're facing a lot more climate change, certainly ocean warming, different food sources, food moving to different regions,” Carroll said. “We saw less healthy fish. Their gas tanks are less full when they make this migration. We're seeing heat stress, we're seeing warm temperatures as they enter the river.

Since 2019, Carroll said the number of Chinook recorded in the upper Yukon River at Eagle has fallen significantly below corresponding numbers far downstream at the pilot station. Biologists think one thing that could kill them somewhere along this nearly 1,100-mile journey is the disease-causing parasite Ichthyophonus.

According to a 2022 report by federal and state biologists to the Alaska Board of Fish, the severity of Ichthyophonus infections peaks somewhere near Alaska's river midpoint. But moving upriver, severely infected fish were rarely found, the report said.

Carroll said scientists are also studying Chinook salmon eggs to try to identify potential threats to future stocks. They want to know if the low levels of the vitamin thiamine that have been linked to early salmon mortality have an additional impact on the fish.

In 2024, time is running out as scientists try to understand what is happening to Yukon River salmon. But as Carroll acknowledged, time is also of the essence when it comes to allowing communities along the river to simply be able to feed themselves.

“How can we get more food to people? And if it is with selective equipment, how can we get people to use it? Because they’re not traditional, they’re not easy, they’re not effective,” Carroll said. “We all need to come to the table and find a way to provide food for people while protecting chinooks while we rebuild them.” »

The first Chinook of the season are likely entering the lower Yukon River at this time. With luck, they will reach their native source, protected by the efforts of the communities with which they are inextricably linked.