Wild king (chinook) salmon or hatchery pink salmon?

King Salmon are the largest salmon in the largest state famous for large salmon. The Yukon River system is the largest river in Alaska. With a king salmon downturn lasting 17 summers now in the Cook Inlet area, and other parts of the state, and even longer on the Yukon River system, Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) biologists long ago identified poor ocean production as a primary reason for state-wide declining king salmon numbers and harvests. State scientists have further identified Alaska king salmons’ first year in the ocean as the critical time period when most of the fish seem to be lost compared to earlier times or higher production. While some subsistence fisheries, commercial fisheries, and sport fisheries have been closed or greatly restricted in efforts to conserve the extremely low numbers of adult king salmon returning after spending several years at sea, as far as I know, little has been done to help improve survival of Alaska king salmon during their first year of ocean life.

Petition to List Alaska King Salmon

The Wild Fish Conservancy made news this week with a petition to the National Marine Fisheries Service / National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to: “Designate Evolutionary Significant Units and List Alaskan Chinook Salmon under the Endangered Species Act.”

Alaskans may remember that this same group sought to halt the Southeast Alaska troll fishery for king salmon by court order in 2023. The decision was appealed and a limited fishery took place this past summer.

The new petition lists a plethora of reasons for the dramatic king salmon declines within Alaska: climate change, warming stream / river waters, reduced stream flows, and specifically mentions competition with large numbers of hatchery pink and chum salmon repeatedly. (Another source of competition may be from large releases of hatchery king salmon in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbian that migrate north and west into Alaska waters — but that competition is not mentioned in the petition).

Over the years competition with hatchery pink salmon has been discussed off and on as a reason for possible declines in wild king salmon, wild coho salmon, wild chum salmon and some wild sockeye salmon populations and especially in areas closer to where the large hatchery releases occur. It seems quite ironic that declines of the 4 more valuable salmon species may possibly be caused by the hatchery produced species worth the least value per pound.

The petition lists stock status for 14 king salmon populations throughout Alaska including Alexander Creek and Theodore River (Creek) in Northern Cook Inlet.

Absent from the list were other king salmon populations within the Susitna River drainage, the Nushagak River in Bristol Bay, Kuskokwim River, Yukon River, and the Kenai River. These unlisted stocks are historically some of the largest king salmon producers in Alaska, and each has had significant king salmon production declines since 2007. Continuing below-goal king salmon return numbers projected and occurring in-season on the Kenai River in 2023 caused closure of the Upper Cook Inlet commercial set net fishery in the Central District along the Kenai Peninsula for the entire season, and led to ADF&G listing Kenai River king salmon as a Stock of Management Concern in October 2023.

As more than a casual observer, I have often wondered if the State of Alaska may have traded our former abundances of our largest salmon / official state fish (king salmon) for super abundances of hatchery pink salmon for hatchery and commercial harvest. A particularly vocal former Alaska Board of Fisheries member has often suggested this may be occurring, and there has always appeared to be an effort to not look at this particular data too closely. With a broad recently published scientific paper (last fall) having the same premise and now with the Wild Fish Conservancy bringing this issue to the forefront -- it may finally have a more thorough and public examination.

Recently in the news: Petition,ADF&G Response, Fall of the Kings

In Hopes of Bringing Back the King of Alaska Fish!

Andy Couch is a Mat-Su Valley fishing guide, member of the Matanuska Susitna Borough Fish and Wildlife Commission and Matanuska Valley Fish and Game Advisory Committee. Unless otherwise noted, opinions expressed in this column are his own.