Yukon River

Somewhere in the rolling tundra east of Deadhorse, a lone wolf hunts. The 100-pound male will take anything it can catch, or find - a ptarmigan, a darting tundra rodent, a fish, the scraps of a carcass, or, if lucky, a moose calf or caribou. Hunger is a common companion, but the wolf somehow survived when his mate probably died of it last winter. That event may have triggered the lone wolf¹s incredible summer journey from south of the Yukon River to the crumbling shores of the Beaufort Sea. The wolf has traveled about 1,500 miles in four months, according to biologist John Burch, who works for the National Park Service.

Alaska State Troopers and volunteer searchers have not found a Pitkas Point man who fell into the Yukon River Saturday while trying to remove a boat from a sandbar. Troopers say Nathan Oney, 22, and fellow Pitkas Point resident Nikita Wasky Jr., 33, were drinking and traveling from Mountain Village to Pitkas Point in a 16-foot boat with an outboard motor when they struck the sandbar. The two men tried to move the boat, but Oney fell into the water and did not surface. AST was alerted to the possible drowning just before midnight Saturday, and resumed a search for Oney Sunday morning.

Alaska State Troopers are investigating the death of a Pilot Station man overnight Tuesday after a Boreal Fisheries tender capsized on the Yukon River near St. Mary's. Troopers in St. Mary's were alerted at about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday that the 32-foot-long tender was overdue at the Boreal Fisheries dock about 10 miles south of St. Mary's on the Yukon. Its sole occupant was 23-year-old skipper Gerald Richardson Minock,  who had last reported in at about 11 p.m. Tuesday. Weather conditions in the area Tuesday night were reported to be windy and rainy.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game expects the state to meet its escapement goal for king salmon on the Yukon River, but it came at a heavy cost to area residents. Under an international treaty 42,500 chinook salmon are required to make it to the spawning grounds in Canada.  The Department closed periods of subsistence fishing on the first two pulses of early run king salmon in order to allow a greater number of kings to reach the spawning grounds.  "That was a major contributor," Dr. Katie Howard, Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim regional biologist for ADF&G, said.

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.

by The Associated Press Wednesday, July 14, 2010 FAIRBANKS, Alaska -- State and federal fisheries managers have asked subsistence fishermen on the middle and upper Yukon River to voluntarily cut back on the number of king salmon they catch. Department of Fish and Game biologist Steve Hayes told fishermen that restrictions might be necessary if it appears that not enough fish will reach Canadian spawning grounds. The request did not please fishermen who have been plagued by high water and debris for the past week and are just beginning to put their nets back in the water.

by The Associated Press Friday, June 18, 2010 FAIRBANKS, Alaska -- King salmon are running late in the Yukon River, where the return has failed to meet the demand from Alaska villagers or international treaty obligations with Canada the past three years. State and federal fishery managers say it's too early to tell how this year's chinook run will size up after king salmon started showing up in the Yukon River late last week. The first kings were caught in test nets at the mouth of the river on June 9, and first detected at a sonar counter at Pilot Station, about 120 miles upriver, on June 11. Biologist Steve Hayes with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game says the Yukon king run is about five days late at this point, and officials plan to assess the situation this weekend.

by Channel 2 News staff Thursday, May 13, 2010 ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The Senate Appropriations Committee agreed to a request by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski to include $5 million in a 2010 supplemental appropriations bill for Yukon River salmon fishermen. Murkowski says the economic disaster assistance would help fishermen and communities affected by the failure of the Yukon River chinook salmon fishery. "What we're able to do with this $5 million will be to get direct payments to those that were affected by the salmon fishery failure," Murkowski said.

by Christine Kim and The Associated Press Wednesday, May 12, 2010 FAIRBANKS, Alaska -- The National Weather Service says an ice jam on the Yukon River between Galena and Ruby is causing the water to rise to levels not seen in four decades. The jam is just upstream of Galena and has raised water levels in the Ruby area. The wife of Mayor Jay DeLima says she's not too concerned about the residents in Ruby, but is worried what will happen when the ice breaks into Galena downriver.