2023 Set Net Selective Harvest Study in Cook Inlet

While looking for hunting information on the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) website, I found a link going to a page-long write up of an ADF&G funded research project attempting to see how effective different set gillnet configurations might be in selectively harvesting sockeye salmon, while simultaneously avoiding king salmon catches along a Kenai Peninsula beach. In preparation for the Upper Cook Inlet Board of Fisheries meeting scheduled for February 23 - March 6 at Anchorage’s Egan Convention Center, ADF&G has contracted with Kintama Research of Nanaimo, British Columbia, “to run a test fishery using set nets modified to keep the net further off the bottom to advance the development of selective harvest strategies that may allow for the harvest of abundant sockeye while reducing the harvest of a weaker stock of chinook.”

Commercial fishermen, sport anglers, personal use dip netters, and subsistence users may recall that set netters who normally fish at Kenai Peninsula beach sites along the Eastside of Upper Cook Inlet and in the Central District were closed for the entire 2023 season by preseason emergency orders seeking to protect Kenai River king salmon which have returned in low numbers for a number of years now. Sport fisheries in Upper Cook Inlet saltwater and Kenai River were also closed to king salmon fishing for the entire 2023 summer season, however, anglers were still allowed to fish for, and harvest other salmon species.

Without set netters harvesting some of the sockeye salmon surplus to spawning escapement goal needs, the Kenai River sonar count estimate was 2,351, 020 late run sockeye salmon (through August 29) swimming past as they migrated upstream. Some of these fish were harvested by the inriver sport fishery, however, most of them likely ended up as additional spawning escapement in excess of the 750,000 — 1,300,000 Kenai River late-run sockeye salmon sustainable escapement goal. In addition, even with the set net and sport fisheries closed for the entire season, only 13, 922 king salmon over 34 inches in length were estimated to pass the sonar counter, more than 1000 king salmon short of the Kenai River optimal spawning escapement goal for king salmon over 34 inch in length.

The Central District set netters along the Eastside of Upper Cook Inlet were the only user group not allowed to harvest a single salmon last summer, and there are a plethora of regulation proposals written to address this inequity and provide at least some type of harvest opportunity for this specific user group.

If there were a scientifically-identified way for set netters to harvest abundant Kenai River and Kasilof River sockeye salmon without significant impact to the far less abundant Kenai River king salmon stock, the public, ADF&G, and Alaska Board of Fisheries members would be much more comfortable in seeing commercial set net harvest of salmon from this traditional fishing area, once again. Thus, the need for this study.

Several years ago Kintama / David Welch did a similar study project that appeared to indicate that catching sockeye while avoiding king salmon catches might be accomplished through the use of 29 mesh deep set gill nets compared to the normally used 45 mesh deep gill nets. The new 2023 study seeks to further refine the previous study results, by testing net depths of 29 meshes, 22 meshes, and 15 meshes and also testing fishing sites close to the beach and further offshore. According to information posted on ADF&G’s website a project completion report is expected to be available in January 2024, however when I contacted ADF&G spokesman for this project, Rick Green, on Tuesday he thought analysis from the study by David Welch might not be available until the Upper Cook Inlet Board of Fisheries meeting in late February.

If there are positive results from this study showing either gear or location to catch sockeye salmon while avoiding most king salmon catches, I believe those results could have an influential impact on both set netting opportunities along the Kenai beaches and the opportunity to pass more Northern Cook Inlet bound sockeye and coho salmon through the Conservation Corridor in the middle of the Inlet and on to the Northern District during the 2024 season.

So far preliminary results of the new Kintama study, posted on the ADF&G website, only show that 9,441 sockeye salmon were caught along with 50 king salmon ( only 9 of which were greater than 34 inches in length) —- but no differentiation concerning numbers of each species caught in the different net depths, or onshore versus offshore locations. See: https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=setgillnetstudy.updates

In hopes of providing more reasonably harvest opportunities for all user groups:

Good luck, and Fish On!