King salmon returns are concerning

This past week has been a busy one for several divisions of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G). The two fisheries divisions have been especially active, but the wildlife division has been hustling right along was well.

If you haven’t read a newspaper for a few days or added that converter box to your older television set last Friday, you might not have heard that the Sport Fish Division (SFD) issued an emergency order closing the Deshka River to all king salmon fishing for the rest of the season. The reason is another extremely poor return of kings.

The weir on the Deshka River allows ADF&G staff to literally count every fish making its way to the weir location about seven miles from the mouth of the river. In years past, about 15 percent to 20 percent of the total run has passed the weir by June 10. This amounts to around 2,000 fish in years when the minimum escapement was barely met, or higher numbers if the run was stronger than the bare minimum.

This season, only about 865 kings had passed the weir by June 10. The average return number by this date from 1997 to 2008 has been 5,450 fish. With a minimum escapement goal of 13,000 kings and a range from 13,000 to 28,000 fish, the SFD took the action of closing the river to sport fishing for kings.

The preseason projection of king salmon returns this year was about 20,000 fish. When an “average” harvest of both sport and commercial fisheries is subtracted from that number, making the minimum escapement of 13,000 fish becomes somewhat problematic. That is why the SFD issued preseason restrictions on the in-river users — to reduce the harvest of king salmon. That is also why the Board of Fisheries restricted the first two Northern District set gillnet commercial openers — to reduce the harvest of kings and hopefully allow the minimum escapement level to be achieved.

Under the Cook Inlet Salmon Management Plan, which specifies how this run is to be managed, if the Deshka River is closed to king salmon fishing, then the commercial fishery is also automatically closed for the rest of the season. The Commercial Fisheries Division (CFD) has already issued the emergency order to accomplish that action.

In light of these numbers, ADF&G has issued a new projection of the overall Deshka king salmon return number for this season. It is 5,623 — about 43 percent of the minimum escapement considered necessary for the continued health of the stock.

If this poor return continues for the rest of the season this will be the second straight year the Deshka has failed to make escapement. Four years in a row qualifies for a Stock of Concern designation under the Sustainable Salmon Fisheries Policy regulation. The department has already commented that 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 are expected to be “not good” because of the 500-year flood event in 2006. The stage is set, now we just watch and see what happens.

Is there a silver lining here? Maybe. The SFD has also stated that if the run picks up and a minimum escapement appears possible prior to July 13, it will reopen the Deshka to some level of fishing. Is this possibly the proverbial “late run?” We can hope.

From what I hear, king returns are doing poorly over most of the state, so the situation is not unique to our area. I heard the word “horrible” used to describe the Kodiak returns. The Copper River hasn’t gotten enough kings to allow retention during the personal use sockeye dipnet fishery and the Yukon has been shut down to all commercial and subsistence fishing, at least for the early part of the king run.

On the wildlife side, I hear the guys are keeping busy sealing bear hides, but not as many as usual. The speculation is that because of the early breakup and rapid green-up, there has been plenty to eat, and the bears are not as concerned with visiting bait sites for their early season feeding.

You might want to remember some dates and other changes in the new 2009-2010 hunting regulations booklet just released. Please note that these changes do not take effect until July 1, so they don’t apply to your current hunting situation. For hunting black bears in Units 13, 14 and 16, you now need a harvest ticket. Also, for those same units, the black bear baiting season has been extended to June 30.

Some additional changes have a lengthened season for brown bear in Units 14B and 16A and the bag limit for 14B has been modified to one brown bear per regulatory year.

Perhaps the most important change to note is the shifting of the moose season dates in Units 14A and B to Aug. 25 through Sept. 25. The old dates were Aug. 20 to Sept. 20.

Pick up a copy of the new regulations and give them a read before you venture out this fall. You’ll be glad you did!

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