Time to repoen Deshka

I received a call Monday from Anchorage resident Steve Stokke, who had been tracking king salmon escapement through the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s (ADF&G) Deshka River weir. Like myself and others have noticed, king salmon passage has increased dramatically since the department restricted the Deshka River sport fishery to single-hook artificial lures on June 20, and then entirely closed all Deshka king salmon fishing on June 25.

Deshka River weir counts can be viewed by visiting adfg.alaska.gov/sf/FishCounts.

In the 13 days from June 20 through July 2, king salmon passage through the Deshka River weir has averaged more than 500 fish per day. If king salmon keep passing the weir at only 400 fish per day for the next two days, the Department weir-measured king salmon escapement was expected pass into the ADF&G-established and Alaska Board of Fisheries-adopted Deshka RIver king salmon spawning escapement goal range of 13,000 to 27,000 fish sometime Wednesday.

Even a two-day projection of reaching the escapement goal range should trigger a re-opening of affected sport and commercial salmon fisheries; however, when Steve Stokke talked with ADF&G Area Sport Fisheries Management Biologist Sam Ivey, he was told the department would likely keep the sport fishery closed even if the 13,000 fish threshold was surpassed before the regularly scheduled end of the king salmon sport fishing season on July 13. I talked with Ivey on July 3 and heard the same message.

A cautious approach

After the department issued several emergency orders earlier this year, restricting king salmon sport fisheries throughout Alaska in efforts to achieve king salmon spawning escapement goals, Steve and I can both appreciate and understand if ADF&G were to delay opening the Deshka River king salmon fishery until the lower end of the king salmon escapement goal range passed the weir.

In addition, we could appreciate the wisdom of ADF&G only re-opening the king salmon fishery below the weir to protect king salmon escapement above the weir. What is unacceptable is for ADF&G to, unpredictably, keep the fishery closed or not allow bait back into a re-opened fishery once the goal range has been attained. Without additional circumstances, such management would be inconsistent with management throughout the state, and to us seems to fly in the face of the state constitutional mandate to manage for maximum benefit from the resource.

Managing for

maximum benefit

One only has to look as far as the most famous sport fishery in the state to see an obvious example of how the department is managing differently. On the Kenai River, even though the early run king salmon escapement goal has not been attained, ADF&G put some safeguards in place and re-opened the king salmon sport fishery July 1.

If anything, the biological data from the Deshka River is much better information than data collected by the department on the Kenai River. That is because Deshka escapement data is collected through use of a weir, manned by department staff 24 hours a day. Because of the staffing requirement, weir data is expensive to collect, and only available for specific, important fisheries; however, weir data is considered by many to be the very best available — the gold standard — of fisheries spawning escapement data.

Using science and

the public process

The state has gone to great expense to operate a salmon counting weir on the Deshka River. It took a public lobbying effort to get and maintain operation of the Deshka River weir, and the Deshka produces the largest number of early run king salmon in the entire Upper Cook Inlet Area, where most of the state’s human population resides.

ADF&G’s king salmon spawning escapement goal for the Deshka was developed from many years of weir data using the department’s best available science and adopted into use through a public process by the Alaska Board of Fisheries.

Why should ADF&G forego using its own publicly adopted escapement goal range in managing the Deshka River king salmon fishery? Why should ADF&G continue to keep the public in the dark as to how this fishery, with the best available scientific information, will be managed?

Escapement quality

Early in the 2012 season there was a concern that a large part of the Deshka River king salmon escapement consisted of early returning male fish weighing 10 pounds or less. Without a healthy number of egg-carrying female king salmon, an escapement of thousands of males would be of little benefit.

According to the last three discussions I’ve had with Ivey, however, Deshka River weir data collected throughout the season is now showing an escapement of approximately 40 percent female king salmon during the 2012 season. While some escapement years may have a higher percentage of female king salmon, 40 percent females for a species that often returns high numbers of precocious males, seems like a reasonable number for a quality spawning escapement.

Time for action

It is time for ADF&G to use the best available data the department has gone to great expense to collect and re-open the Deshka River king fishery at least up to the weir sanctuary area and allow bait back into the fishery. King salmon escapement numbers will continue to climb higher into the escapement goal range — even with the re-establishment of a limited sport fishery. Re-opening the Deshka would likely present the best option for Mat-Su anglers to catch legal salmon in Valley streams, at least through July 13.

It will likely take public opinion and efforts from legislators to get the fishery re-opened, so Steve and I would appreciate all the help people are willing to give.

Andy Couch owns and operates Fishtale River Guides (fish4salmon.com) is a Mat-Su Anglers Club member (matsuanglers.org) and member of the Mat-Su Borough Fish and Wildlife Commission.