Chinook salmon declines discussed at symposium

ANCHORAGE — A research plan generated during a two-day Alaska Chinook Salmon Symposium in Anchorage this week is expected to be available for public review in mid-December.

The symposium focused on reviewing available data and identifying areas where more research is needed about king salmon stocks, said Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Sport Fish Division chief fisheries scientist, Robert Clark.

“Our aim was to get as much input on the gap analysis paper as possible from academics, researchers and all other user groups as possible … and we did,” he said. “The symposium was very successful in helping us develop a detailed research plan to address the declining Chinook salmon populations statewide.”

Clark and his fellow chief fisheries scientist for ADF&G’s Commercial Fisheries Division, Eric Volk, were among the researchers involved in setting up the symposium.

Some of the research scientists recommended at the symposium will take decades to complete, Clark said. But some of that research will yield results in three to five years, things like detailed adult escapement enumerations in the Susitna River drainages and smolt outmigration enumerations from these same systems, he said.

In Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell’s opening remarks at the symposium, he said Alaska is facing a “scientific emergency” in dealing with declining king salmon populations statewide.

Treadwell complemented and thanked the more than 300 attendees, representing all stakeholder groups and scientists from Alaska, Canada and the Lower 48, for coming together to try and address the king salmon problem in Alaska. He also expressed support for “community based science” and said he recognizes that salmon represent “food security” for many Alaskans across the state.

Fish and Game Commissioner Cora Campbell finished the opening remarks saying Alaska is known for sustainable salmon management and that when shortages occur, restrictions on the user groups become necessary to protect the resource. She said the purpose of the symposium was to develop the best research plan possible to address king salmon concerns statewide.

The symposium organizers assembled a team of scientists prior to the meeting to develop a knowledge gap analysis whitepaper outlining areas with insufficient king salmon information and creating a plan to fill in the missing knowledge. This paper was posted on the department website requesting input and comment from interested parties to further identify areas of unknown information.

The two-day symposium Oct. 22-23 was split into four topic sessions. Four different presentations by recognized experts in the topic area were made in each session and a panel of scientists and salmon experts knowledgeable in that venue asked questions of the presenter and answered questions from the audience on facets of the particular session topic. This was done to present what was known and to raise questions about what else needed to be investigated for that topic. Participating audience members were able to offer incites and ask questions on site, through an online web broadcast or over the telephone.

The first session topic was titled “Framing the Issue,” with presentations on subsistence patterns and trends, abundance and productivity trends for Alaskan kings, management challenges in Western and central Alaska, and Chinook salmon bycatch in the pollock fishery.

The second was Chinook stock assessment in Alaska. Presentations here involved assessing the accuracy and precision of scientific information, implementing coded wire tag projects in large rivers, use of parental-based genetic tagging and using genetic tools to inform king salmon management.

The third session looked at the ecology and stock assessment of king salmon in the marine environment. Presentations here included understanding oceanographic, atmospheric and biological variables in nearshore marine habitats, how nearshore marine surveys contribute to a better understanding of early king salmon marine survival in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska and the ecology of Alaska king salmon in the open ocean.

The final session discussed the role of hatcheries and included presentations on king salmon enhancement in the Alaska hatchery program, a review of king salmon enhancement in Southeast Alaska, how CWT information provided a better understanding of hatchery king salmon marine survival, and key information needed to balance the risks and benefits of enhancing a king salmon population using hatchery fish.

One point raised by many audience members as well as some panelists was the use of local or traditional knowledge of the king populations in the management of those fish. Paul Shadura, representing the Cook Inlet Central District setnetters, said he “was happy to hear researchers talk about using local and traditional knowledge in your assessment of king salmon runs.”

At times, the presentations were quite technical in nature, but questions from the audience showed that most were following the science presented and understood enough to point out areas where more work is needed. One audience member asked for a quantification of how much more critical information was needed to realistically begin to address the king salmon crisis.

In some research areas, the experts said they felt they were perhaps halfway home. In other areas, the scientists expressed a concern that they had only a very basic understanding of the particular issue and that much more research was needed. While in many other areas, almost nothing is known.

Two Alaska Board of Fisheries members attended to observe and at least three state legislators also sat in attendance and heard the science presented. An idea of the financial commitment necessary to fill in the many data holes, which became apparent during the symposium, was implied in the various session question and answer discussions. Most experts talked in terms of decades of research on any particular project to gain a true understanding of the dynamics involved. Most Fish and Game research projects typically only run for three to five seasons.

A summary of the symposium and a compilation of the session presentations and thoughts generated by the question and answer periods in each session should be posted on the department’s website within two weeks at http://tinyurl.com/8uvc3wy.

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by emailing sports@frontiersman.com.