Choice to not fish gets noticed

Last week’s column apparently generated some interest in the media. Earlier this week, I received a call from a reporter who works for the public radio network asking if I would answer some questions about that column. When the reporter stated that I had asked people to stop fishing altogether, I immediately responded that I would be happy to answer her questions.

In that column, I presented an overview of the almost universally poor returns of king salmon to our Northern District in particular, and to Cook Inlet in general. I went on to say that I had made a personal choice not to fish for wild king salmon until things got better. I asked folks to consider doing the same. I specifically stated wild fish and went on to state that a trip to the Eklutna Tailrace was a possibility since that run is an artificial, hatchery supported return designed to have every fish caught and killed by the angling public.

I think the reporter was somewhat unfamiliar with salmon sport fishing in general and king salmon in particular. She was pleasant and her questions were what I would label “softballs” compared to some interviews I endured while I was a member of the Board of Fisheries. She said she was going to try to contact a few other people to finish putting together the story.

I asked her to please notify me when the story was scheduled to run on the public radio network so I could listen in. I have also learned, being on both sides of the reporting end in fisheries, that what you say may not always be reported in context and can, at times, be twisted into some unusual statements. I don’t think that will happen here, but I’ve never dealt with this reporter before. Time will tell.

While we’re talking king salmon, let’s look at the actual escapement counts from ADF&G’s weirs on the Deshka and Little Susitna rivers. As of July 2, the Deshka River has a king salmon count of 15,400. The escapement range is 13,000 to 28,000 fish, so the Deshka has made a low-end escapement. That’s perhaps the only bright spot regarding king salmon in the Northern District.

The Little Susitna, again as of July 2, has only seen 1,461 kings through the weir. I checked ADF&G’s fish count data base and for the four other years listed on the website when kings were counted through a weir at the same location as the current weir, all were well above the 1,461 count for the same date. Here are the numbers: 1988 saw 6,782 kings by July 2 with a total run of 7,712; 1989 saw 3,866 kings by July 2 with a total run of 4,367; 1994 saw 2,664 kings by July 2 with a total run of 2,981; and 1995 saw 2,212 kings by July 2 with a total run of 2,893. In fairness, high waters early this year overflowed the weir and some fish may have passed by without being counted. However, I doubt there were very many. Things don’t look good here.

For now, these are the only two systems in the Northern District that are currently using weirs to enumerate the numbers of king salmon escaping to become broodstock. Starting next year, as a result of funds allocated to ADF&G by the Legislature to research why the king runs are so poor, there will be several more weirs in place. Currently, aerial and foot survey counts are used as an index of escapement for all the other monitored king salmon systems. Index counts are fine for tracking trends in population cycles, but don’t give near the quality of data actual hard counts through weirs provide.

Before I run out of allotted space, I want to mention another black powder shoot coming up. The Alaska State Territorial Match is scheduled to run July 11-14 at the Upper Susitna Shooters Association range, located at Mile 94, Parks Highway. This is an annual statewide match affiliated with the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association (NMLRA). Smoothbores, rifles, flintlocks, percussion locks, handguns, revolvers and black powder cartridge rifles are all included in the various aggregate matches.

I usually try to shoot several different aggregate matches just to play with the variety of muzzleloaders I have. I’ve even been known to win or place in a few matches, but last year I shot poorly. Let’s hope for better results this time!

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.