Fishing for answers

MAT-SU — Representatives of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s fisheries divisions, Commercial Fisheries and Sport Fish, and the Mat-Su Borough Fish and Wildlife Commission met June 13 at the Palmer Fish and Game office to finalize a $7 million suite of research and enhancement projects.

With salmon returns to the Northern District in such poor condition over the past several years and the resulting economic depression resulting from those weak runs (an estimated $50 million loss to the borough economy in 2012 alone), Fish and Game approached the borough to determine how the funding would be spent.

One legislative appropriation is for $2 million to address Chinook enhancement projects in the Valley. The second, for $2.5 million, is designated to research why salmon returns to the Susitna drainage have been well below normal the past several years. A third appropriation, for $2.5 million, was made directly to the Mat-Su Borough to address salmon genetics data collection and to perform fisheries habitat enhancements.

That first $2.5 million state appropriation was originally part of the governor’s $10 million request to research poor Chinook or king salmon returns statewide. Rep. Bill Stoltze was able to set aside the money from the $10 million statewide request and earmark it to allow research on all five salmon species within the Susitna drainage.

Both Fish and Game and the borough commission want to see data for the entire Northern District so the two groups are partnering on funding to move forward with a borough-wide inventory of salmon habitat conditions where corrective action is needed. This involves identifying things like beaver dams, impassable road culverts or naturally occurring woody debris buildup that has impeded salmon passage into usable habitat.

More work in identifying both Chinook and coho salmon abundance and distribution borough-wide is also an identified project. Some of this work can be accomplished in coordination with projects currently being done by the Alaska Energy Authority in its research for the proposed Susitna-Watana hydroelectric project in the Susitna drainage.

Numerous weirs also have been added to the operating budget for Sport Fish Division within the Northern District to get better counts on returning salmon, specifically Chinook and coho, in various systems.

Palmer Sport Fish Division Area Manager Sam Ivey the unusual weather this season has made it difficult to install some of the weirs in a timely manner, but that every effort was being made to complete the work.

Major emphasis will be placed on collecting genetic samples of both Chinook and coho salmon to learn which river or tributary system fish would have returned to if they had not been caught. Some the genetics information will come from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s work on the Matanuska River and other Knik Arm drainages.

Having a more complete picture of returning numbers of salmon through weir counts and the genetics of where the fish are from, in conjunction with catch numbers from both commercial and sports fisheries, will allow researchers to develop scientifically based escapement goals for various Northern District systems, according to Jeff Regnart, the Commercial Fisheries Division director.

“We know people are tired of studies and, to be honest, some of this work will require perhaps 10 years of data collection before an accurate number can be developed,” he said. “However, the long-term health of the resource requires this level of research commitment.”

Escapement goals will allow a better management approach to assure escapements necessary for rebuilding and maintaining healthy salmon populations.

“ADF&G does not want to, and has no intention of, failing with any of these proposed projects,” said Charlie Swanton, Sport Fish Division director. “We are trying to use the funding as expeditiously as possible to collect the information needed to return these Northern District salmon populations to a healthy status.”

Much of the information needed to establish scientifically based escapement goals does not exist for the Northern District salmon stocks.

ADF&G is also proposing a sockeye salmon retrospective scale analysis project for the Susitna/Yentna drainages as one of the projects. Sockeyes are the salmon species with the longest history of data collection in the Northern District. The department feels a review of scale analysis work along with genetic identifications from the scales themselves collected over nearly five decades will allow establishing a solid, scientifically based and defensible escapement goal in a shorter timeframe than the 10-year framework Regnart mentioned earlier.

The knowledge gained from this project should aid in bringing the Susitna/Yentna sockeye stocks back to a healthy condition more quickly. These salmon stocks were declared a Stock of Concern at the 2008 Upper Cook Inlet Board of Fisheries meeting and have only continued to decline in numbers of returning fish since that declaration.

A small amount of funding from the department’s appropriations and the borough’s money will be held in reserve until unknown costs and unforeseen circumstances in the various projects are worked out.

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On the fisheries enhancement side, the Eklutna Tailrace and the Willow/Deception Creek systems will receive further enhancement of Chinook salmon numbers. These two sites were selected for three reasons.

First, both locations are easily accessible by road; meaning the largest number of anglers can be served by enhancing these runs.

Second, the Eklutna location is already a totally hatchery-supported run and the Willow/Deception system has an established king salmon enhancement program with an egg-take site currently in place. Adding additional hatchery fish to these two locations will not significantly alter the genetics of existing local populations of wild kings.

Third, and probably the biggest reason, is cost. Hatchery fish are expensive to produce. The $2 million available is capital budget funding to be used over a five-year period. The cost, in round numbers, to expand king salmon stocking to its full potential at these two sites is about $500,000 per year. If future funding can be secured from the Legislature, the stocking programs could be expanded, but that would be a very costly and long-term commitment.

King salmon are the longest lived of the five Pacific salmon species. One generation can live seven to eight years. Establishing a proven stocking operation over several generations with good, measureable returns of hatchery fish can, literally, take decades to accomplish.

A carefully developed stocking program over years of enhancement of a king salmon population could eventually result in having all the eggs needed to expand a program to its full potential while also assuring an adequate population of wild-spawning fish as well. At some point, if the genetics of this population were compatible with surrounding area needs, this population might also serve as an enhancement source to expand stocking into neighboring systems as well.

The funding for these programs becomes available July 1 with the new fiscal year. Some of the projects will immediately be started while others won’t begin until next season. Coordinating all the various projects between the various agencies involved to assure the broadest range of work without repeating effort is still ongoing, but a slate of projects is expected to begin this season.

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