Fishing for some solutions

Let’s talk king salmon and I’ll express a personal choice many may agree with and many more may not. This idea evolved from a discussion with a manager in one of the Valley’s sporting goods stores this past week. I’ll not name him because he doesn’t know our conversation spurred this column.

King salmon stocks are hurting all over Alaska. As this is written, king returns have generally been even worse than the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) initially forecast for the 2013 season. Retention of king salmon in the Southcentral personal use fisheries has been closed and all the early run sport fishing for kings on the Kenai has also been closed.

Most of the Valley king salmon systems are, at best, catch-and-release fishing only with severe restrictions on fishing times, gear and bait usage. Even some saltwater sport fishing for kings has already been closed. The runs could be late given our unusual weather this year, but even given that, the numbers of fish counted to date are way below historic and healthy population run strength numbers pretty much everywhere.

There are several levels of discussion that are appropriate here. The biological health and future of king salmon in the Northern District has spurred a massive research effort by ADF&G to try and determine what is going on and how to reverse the declining return numbers. Then there is the economic impact this “crash” of king returns has had on Northern District businesses that serve the sport fishing public. I have been told that the 2012 economic loss to Valley sport fishing-related businesses has been estimated as high as $50 million. This economic figure encompasses both the king and coho salmon sport fisheries, given the poor returns of coho in addition to the weak king returns in 2012.

The social impact is important as well. For instance, many families in a “normal” king year would be spending time together fishing, boating and camping. Now they need to either find other activities for their family recreation time or participate in other fisheries, like pike or lake fishing. Unfortunately, some will stop fishing altogether.

Earlier this year, shortly after ADF&G announced the restrictions placed on king salmon sport fishing in the Valley, I asked Sam Ivey, the sport fish area manager in Palmer, if he was catching a lot of flak from folks upset about all the restrictions. He replied that the question/criticism he was hearing most from the public was why doesn’t ADF&G just close the entire king salmon fishery down and concentrate on returning the various fish populations back to a healthy condition? If the stocks are hurting as badly as claimed, just close the season and protect what fish do return. I think Sam was a little surprised at being criticized for not closing a fishing season.

The store manager I mentioned earlier commented that his job was to sell fishing equipment and promote the Valley’s diversified fisheries. He further stated that, in good conscience, he could not promote taking any harvest out of the limited numbers of returning kings. As a result, he was telling folks about the various pike fishing opportunities around the Valley and other fisheries, like Russian River sockeyes, lake fishing for trout or the saltwater charters for halibut. He still needed to sell gear, but not necessarily king salmon gear.

In the mission statement for ADF&G’s Sport Fish Division (SFD), managers are tasked with the top priority of managing the fishery resources for sustained yield. Their second task, only slightly less important than No. 1, is to provide as much opportunity as possible for the residents of Alaska to use their fishery resources. The first point is biological. The second involves social and economic impacts. The SFD folks are doing their best to walk the tight line separating these two mission tasks.

My wife and I have made a personal choice not to fish for wild king salmon until things get dramatically better. We might try Eklutna for hatchery fish, but if the crowds are too large, we’ll either go elsewhere to fish for something else or find another recreational activity until the coho, hopefully, show up.

I would encourage you to give some thought to this and make your own choice. I understand the economic impact on guides and businesses if there is a wholesale abandonment of king salmon sport fishing. I don’t think that will happen, but I, for one, don’t need to catch a king until conditions improve.

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.