Sockeye

Alaska salmon are relatively safe from a highly contagious marine influenza virus according to state officials, who say there's “no reason to panic” about a recent announcement that it could be affecting Pacific salmon. “I would say the risk right now for Alaska salmon is low,” said Dr. Ted Meyers, a state fish pathologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Canadian researchers in British Columbia announced Monday they had found the influenza virus infectious salmon anemia, or ISA, in two juvenile sockeye salmon on the province's central coast, the first time in the Pacific Northwest.

Numerous boats sitting in dry storage in Naknek are a quiet precursor to the busy sockeye salmon fishing season that transforms this community. The population increases tenfold in the summer to support the most profitable commercial sockeye fishery in the world. While other areas of the state have seen commercial fishing hurt by low king salmon returns, Bristol Bay remains a strong economic engine. The mayor of the Bristol Bay Borough, Daniel O'Hara, says fishing's importance to the region is like oil's importance to the State of Alaska.

A huge sockeye salmon run on the Kenai River has prompted the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to make changes to sport and personal-use fishing on the river, including an increase in sockeye bag limits and a 24-hour dipnetting fishery for the rest of the month. Fish and Game says the new bag and possession limits of six per day for non-king salmon 16 inches or longer, of which no more than two may be coho, will go into effect Thursday. The changes do not affect the Russian River and fly-fishing-only waters of the Upper Kenai near the Russian, where limits remain at three per day and in possession.

by Jackie Bartz Friday, June 11, 2010 ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- During its salmon runs, the banks of the Russian River are crawling with anglers. You can hardly move an inch without hooking the person next to you. Instead of combat fishing, however, people kicked back and enjoyed a little space Friday. The river opened for fishing at midnight Thursday. Most visitors to the river are interested in hooking early sockeye salmon, but the fish are few and far between. Some skilled and perhaps lucky anglers managed to catch their limit of three sockeyes, but most say they just practiced their technique and only caught one -- if any. Michigan angler Marjan Mohamadi said she had hope Friday.

Collapsing king salmon runs have been causing some Kenai Peninsula businesses, including guide services, bed-and-breakfasts and restaurants, to suffer through their worst season in decades. While the effects of the king collapse have been felt statewide, on the Kenai there has been one saving grace: fellow Alaskans, dipnetters who have been driving down to the peninsula from places like Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley. They're being drawn to the Kenai by an excellent sockeye salmon run. Even though king salmon runs have collapsed, the sockeyes' return is at near-record levels.

Alaska's commercial salmon fisheries have netted 19.9 million fish so far this year, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.  In Bristol Bay, fishermen are over halfway to the state's forecast harvest.  As of July 1st, fishermen have netted about 15 million fish. The state forecast a harvest of 28.5 million, with an run of 38.5 million.   "In Bristol Bay, you know which is the big fishery, right now, the big fishery in June and the first half of July is the sockeye fishery, and that is tracking fairly close to last year," said Geron Bruce, the assistant director of Commercial Fisheries for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The Board of Fisheries will debate over 300 proposals during its 15-day meeting in Anchorage starting Sunday, from preserving the king salmon fishery on the Kenai River to bolstering salmon returns in the Matanuska Valley. One group of proposals is already stirring up controversy: the 28 proposals before the board that deal with dipnetting on the Kenai and Kasilof rivers. Some of them would eliminate the use of boats for personal-use fishing on the Kenai River, eliminate the retention of king salmon caught while dipnetting and shorten the season.

by The Associated Press Tuesday, January 5, 2010 JUNEAU, Alaska -- State Sen. Albert Kookesh and the three co-defendants accused of illegal subsistence fishing have filed a court motion to have the case dismissed. They claim the state acted outside its jurisdiction. Juneau District Attorney Doug Gardner told the Juneau Empire newspaper he will oppose the motion. A trial scheduled to begin Monday was postponed until April. The defendants are accused of using a beach seine net to catch more sockeye salmon than was allowed in Kanalku Bay near Angoon.

by Jackie Bartz Tuesday, July 6, 2010 ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Sockeye salmon pulled from Bristol Bay are the focus of a regional grassroots campaign in Washington and Oregon. "Savor Bristol Bay" is targeting the proposed Pebble Mine using the dinner plates of customers.          Nearly 50 restaurants in Seattle and Portland have teamed up with the anti-Pebble group Trout Unlimited. All week they'll be exclusively serving up sockeye salmon to bring awareness to their anti-pebble campaign.

by The Associated Press Saturday, February 20, 2010 ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has set its statewide commercial salmon harvest for 2010. The state agency says the projected total is 138 million salmon. The amount is a decrease compared to last year. Most of the decrease is expected to come from lower pink salmon catches. Overall, chinook and sockeye harvests are expected to be higher than last year. Coho and chum should be about the same.

Numerous boats sitting in dry storage in Naknek are a quiet precursor to the busy sockeye salmon fishing season that transforms this community. The population increases tenfold in the summer to support the most profitable commercial sockeye fishery in the world. While other areas of the state have seen commercial fishing hurt by low king salmon returns, Bristol Bay remains a strong economic engine. The mayor of the Bristol Bay Borough, Daniel O'Hara, says fishing's importance to the region is like oil's importance to the State of Alaska.

Hard-hit setnet fishermen in Kenai are sitting on pins and needles Wednesday, as the state's fisheries board voted to wait and reassess daily whether to allow setnetters to put their equipment into the water. As of 6 p.m. Wednesday, the board had not approved setnet fishing Thursday, a delay that has the setnetters on edge. A poor king salmon run has drastically cut the income of more than 400 licensed setnetters in Kenai. If they don't get permission to catch other types of salmon before the season runs out, this summer will amount to a near-total loss.

Collapsing king salmon runs have been causing some Kenai Peninsula businesses, including guide services, bed-and-breakfasts and restaurants, to suffer through their worst season in decades. While the effects of the king collapse have been felt statewide, on the Kenai there has been one saving grace: fellow Alaskans, dipnetters who have been driving down to the peninsula from places like Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley. They're being drawn to the Kenai by an excellent sockeye salmon run. Even though king salmon runs have collapsed, the sockeyes' return is at near-record levels.

Setnetters on the east side of Cook Inlet remain shut down, in a continued effort to conserve king salmon, which are returning in record low numbers.   In an emergency meeting on Thursday via teleconference, the state board of fisheries voted five to two to take no action on six petitions that were filed on Wednesday, asking the board to allow setnetters some opportunity to harvest sockeye salmon, which are abundant this year.    The original petition, which requested the emergency meeting to open the fishery, had been withdrawn.

The Kenai River king salmon crisis intensified on Tuesday.  More than 200 setnetters, who work the east side of Cook Inlet gathered for another emotional meeting at the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association offices on Kalifornski road.   The parking lot was filled, and there was a long line of cars parked on the road.  The meeting room inside was overflowing.  People stood on the steps and outside the building.  Although the setnetters weren't carrying signs as they did in a demonstration at the Kenai park strip on Friday, they continued to air their frustrations about being shut out of a strong red salmon run for the sake of conserving king salmon, which are returning in record low numbers.  The meeting was called by the Kenai Peninsula Fisherman's Association, which represents east side setnetters, who hold  more than 400 permits in the fishery.  They harvest salmon along with other users --  the commercial Cook Inlet driftnet fleet, charter operators, anglers and dipnetters.   The setnetters compare their fishery to a family-run business and say the current closure will ruin them.  Doug Blossom says four generations of his family have setnetted, going back to the territorial days.

The Kenai River will be open 24 hours a day to personal-use dipnetting beginning Friday night, with higher bag and possession limits for some salmon after projections of a strong sockeye run this year. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game says the loosened restrictions were triggered by new projections indicating that late-run sockeyes on the Kenai will exceed a threshold number of 2.3 million fish. Bag and possession limits on the Kenai downstream of Skilak Lake for salmon 16 inches or longer, except kings and cohos, will increase to six per day and 12 in possession.

Kings vs. sockeyes. It's a debate that continued on the Kenai River, as commercial fishing got underway on Monday with some of the worst king salmon numbers on record.  The Upper Cook Inlet driftnet fleet and setnetters on the east end of the Inlet had twelve hours of commercial fishing on Monday, capitalizing on a strong pulse of sockeye salmon. Fish and game biologists say between 200,000 to 250,000 sockeyes entered the river over the past few days, compared to the kings, which still are barely trickling in.    Pat Shields, a state biologist in Soldotna, says the kings number only in the hundreds, so it's like trying to keep track of small pieces of straw while dealing with big bales of hay.      “And I guess that analogy works to point out to people that it is a very serious challenge to try to accurately estimate the number of king salmon swimming up the Kenai River, when they're mixed in with hundreds of thousands of sockeye,” said Shields.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game decided late Wednesday to allow Southwest Alaska subsistence fishermen to fish for chum and sockeye salmon on the lower Kuskokwim River starting Friday, but kept a ban on fishing for king salmon in place through the end of the month. Fishermen in the Bethel area have been very concerned in recent weeks, as a delay in the king salmon run has prompted state and federal action to protect the fish from overfishing. “We have some early indications, we're at an early point in the run, but we have early indications that we're looking at low abundance of Chinook (salmon)

Alaska salmon are relatively safe from a highly contagious marine influenza virus according to state officials, who say there's “no reason to panic” about a recent announcement that it could be affecting Pacific salmon. “I would say the risk right now for Alaska salmon is low,” said Dr. Ted Meyers, a state fish pathologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Canadian researchers in British Columbia announced Monday they had found the influenza virus infectious salmon anemia, or ISA, in two juvenile sockeye salmon on the province's central coast, the first time in the Pacific Northwest.

The Board of Fish unanimously voted down an agenda request change by the Kenai River Sportfishing Association at an Anchorage meeting Wednesday. If approved it would have allowed the board to take up king salmon management out of cycle. KRSA wanted the board to address various aspects of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's management plan for Kenai River late-run king salmon, saying the state did a poor job of management this past year.   "Despite it not being passed, I think a very fruitful discussion happened between the Board of Fish and department in terms of late run Kenai River king salmon," Rick Gease, executive director of KRSA, said during an interview.