Category Archives: Environmental

It was noted at the beginning of the meeting that a few kings are being caught in the lower portion of the river below Bethel.  The Bethel Test Fishery, which is used as an indicator of run strength and will be the major real-time tool used to determine if any management actions are taken, has caught two Chinook so far.  Here are the results to date of the Bethel Test Fishery compared to previous years.

Early Results of the Bethel Test Fishery

Daniel Esai of Nicolai said that last year the first Chinook was caught on June 7th.  He noted that one year someone caught one as early as May 31; obviously, there is great variation from year to year.  Over ten years ago Sally Hoffman caught a Chinook in the Aniak River while ice fishing in April!

As far as salmon enumeration projects the only weir currently in is the Kwethluk, but it hasn’t caught any yet…which is normal.  The Kwethluk weir actually has to be installed in April, otherwise that water is usually too high this time of year to get it in.  All the other weir projects are currently being installed.

Steve Miller with the Fish & Wildlife Service in Bethel said that they will be collecting tissue samples this summer in and around Bethel and McGrath to assess the extent of the ichthyophonus disease; something that has been fairly common in the Yukon River fish over the years.  So keep your eyes out for pale flesh with nodules or irregular spots or bumps.  If you come across any suspicious fish, call the Bethel FWS office at 543-3151 or Ken Harper in Kenai at 800-822-6550.

Nodules in liver of Chinook salmon

Spotting of Chinook fillet

After a week of deliberations the Department and the Fish & Wildlife Service have agreed to use a total in-river escapement of 127,279 as an objective for management purposes going into this season.  That number corresponds to almost 9,000 Chinook escaping into the Kogrukluk River on the upper Holitna.  Unfortunately, by the time anyone knows what the actual escapement on the Kogrukluk, or any weir, is – it’s too late to make any real-time decisions; that’s why fish management is so difficult.

It is possible that in order to make that level of Kuskokwim-wide escapement that everyone in the drainage will have to sacrifice in these times of low returns.  And it is possible that those sacrifices may begin this coming Sunday with what’s called rolling closures which would first be implemented downstream of Bethel and then progress upriver.

The entire river has been divided up into five sections that will have overlapping closure times in order to give a particular group of fish the best chance of making it upriver to the spawning grounds with the least amount of pressure.  Fish run timing was taken into consideration since past studies have shown the swimming speed for a Kuskokwim Chinook averages about 13-14 miles per day.

Section 1 is downstream of Bethel, then Section 2 goes from below Bethel up to Tuluksak.  Section 3 runs from Tuluksak to Chuathbaluk.  Napaimute is in the 4^th section which goes from Chuathbaluk to Sleetmute; everything beyond that is the 5^th section.

The most downstream section below Bethel, being the first one to be closed, will have a minimum of 24 hours notice.  We in Section 4 will have plenty of notice as to when our closure will begin; it will take effect 5 days after Section 3’s begins.  Keep in mind that when the closure is in place there will be no rod and reel fishing either in the name of subsistence or sport fishing for Chinook salmon.

Depending on how poor the run is, there could be more than one closure period in a particular section; this would likely apply to downriver sections where escapements in the lower tributaries like the Tuluksak and Kwethluk rivers are of great concern.

If you have any questions you can call ADF&G in Bethel at 543- 2433 or E-mail me at dcannonnapaimuteed@earthlink.net

With the advent of low Chinook salmon numbers returning to the Kuskokwim the past few years and the similar low projections expected for this coming season, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game along with Kuskokwim Salmon Management Working Group have agreed to begin the season by closing the Aniak and George rivers for rod and reel fishing for substance and sport fishing.

Consequently, there will likely be increased fishing pressure, most likely from sport fishermen, at the mouths of the Owhut and Holokuk rivers that would put additional stress on the reduced numbers of fish returning to spawn.  Napaimute’s environmental department made the included poster in hopes of encouraging others to minimize the stress incurred on those returning fish.

Those closures and this conservation poster are contingent upon another year of low returns.  However, if the run is stronger than expected and closer to normal, the Aniak and George River closures will be lifted.

There was a Salmon Management Working Group meeting this morning (the 6th) to assess management actions, but it is a little to early since the Bethel test fishery only has a few days of information.  The Working Group will meet again this Friday.  If the run is low, it is possible that subsistence regulations for rolling closures could go into effect this coming Sunday from a point downstream of Bethel to the mouth of the Kuskokwim.

I will write a post shortly that discusses what went on at today’s meeting and explaining the potential rolling closures.

This poster - if necessary - will be placed at the mouths of the Owhut & Holokuk rivers.

Invasive species are a concern throughout Alaska – whether they be the terrestrial kind like troublesome orange hawkweed or other rapidly spreading invasive plants, tunicates found in salt water near Sitka or the freshwater waterweed (i.e., Elodea) rapidly expanding in the Chena Slough area near Fairbanks.

For that reason the Native Village of Napaimute and the Kuskokwim River Water Council have come up with a poster that will be posted locally in the villages and regional float plane lakes; it will also be sent to all the guides and outfitters that bring out-of-state clients to the Kuskokwim tributaries who have the potential for bringing an unwanted invasive to the region.

Here is a letter sent to the outfitters and guides:

Hello ,

My name is Dave Cannon and I’m the Environmental Director for the Native Village of Napaimute located on the Kuskokwim River about 30 miles upriver of Aniak.

Several years ago I was the Invasive Plant Coordinator for the middle Yukon-Kuskokwim Region but prior to that I was mostly involved with fish issues since I’m a fish biologist.  I learned that not too long ago most Alaskan botanists didn’t think invasive plants were a big concern due to our remoteness and severe climate.  Unfortunately, they know differently now.  My exposure to the world of invasive plants really opened my eyes as to just how problematic invasives can be – even here in the more the more remote parts of the state.  Of particular concern is reed canarygrass that has the potential to reduce salmon spawning habitat.

Having worked in the lower 48, I was familiar with whirling disease that was prevalent in Colorado, Montana and other Western states as well as the typical hatchery related diseases (e.g., BKD or bacterial kidney disease) since I worked at the Jackson National Fish Hatchery in Jackson Hole, Wyoming prior to being the fish biologist for the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge in Bethel.

There are numerous ongoing efforts to minimize the threats.  While in Bethel I participated in a National Wild Fish Health Survey conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service where we collected baseline tissue samples on rainbow trout in the Kisaralik River; this study was partly driven by the concern over whirling disease.  Fortunately, no diseases were found at that time.

I probably don’t have to dwell then on what the concerns are, but in one Montana study 40% of the anglers did not clean their equipment between uses (Gates et al. 2006).  In another study on aquatic invasive species transport via trailered boats,the authors found that although fishing guides moved among waterways with a greater frequency than anyone else, they often employed less-than-ideal boat cleaning practices…mostly due to inconvenience.

It is our hope that everyone involved will take the extra time to reduce the threat of introducing unwanted organisms to the Kuskokwim drainage so that we never have to deal with such things as whirling disease, rock snot or Elodea (a type of a water weed).  I’ve attached a poster in pdf format expressing our concern and suggestions for ways to minimize the potential for unwanted introductions.

Here are some simple guidelines to follow above and beyond what’s on the poster: 

CLEAN     DRAIN     DRY

 CLEAN – Rinse and remove all visible mud, plants, fish/animals from boats, trailers, float plane rudders and floats, and gear

 DRAIN – Drain water from coolers, floats, bilge pumps, buckets, and wring out gear before leaving the boat launch or fishing area 

DRY – Completely dry equipment and gear between visits to different waterbodies

 *Never release plants, water, fish, or animals into a body of water*

Please feel free to E-mail or call me if you have any questions.  If you would like a printed version of the poster to display in a prominent location please contact me and we’ll send one out.  Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

Dave Cannon

Environmental Director

Native Village of Napaimute for the Kuskokwim Watershed Council

P.O. Box 355, Aniak, AK 99557

(907) 675-4443 © 676-0012

REFERENCES

Gates, K. K., K. Meehan, and C. S. Guy. 2006. Angler movement patterns and the spread of whirling disease in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, Sacramento, California. Available: www.wou.edu/pacifica. (February 2007).

Rothlisberger, J.D., W.L. Chadderton, J. McNulty, and D.M. Lodge. 2010.  Aquatic invasive species transport via trailered boats: What is being moved, who is moving it, and what can be done.  Fisheries 35 (3): 121-132.

Page 1 Help Keep Aquatic Invasives Out Of The Kuskokwim

Page 2 of the poster

The Department of Fish & Game discussed some changes going into this season as far as projects they have going and their plans on managing the salmon going into this upcoming season.

A surprise to me, and to many, is that the Department will no longer operate the Aniak sonar project which is, or has been, the 2^nd longest running project in the drainage; the Kogrukluk weir on the upper Holitna has been around since 1976.  The Aniak sonar was put in in 1980.

The reason it won’t be operated anymore is two-fold.  First, money for projects is getting tight, and this project never provided hard numbers.  Since it couldn’t differentiate between species very well, it only gave what is considered an index.  The Department tried to speciate by drifting a gill net in the area, but that couldn’t effectively work the deeper water.  So it was generally assumed the chums comprised the bulk of the run in the Aniak…and no doubt that is true – especially when in some years over 1 million return.

With time technology has improved, and newer equipment was able to differentiate between salmon sized fishes and very small fish, but still precision was lacking.

Keep that in mind when you think about managing the Yukon River salmon runs and the Pilot Station sonar.  I’m not saying that that system shouldn’t be used, because at times a manager has to use the best tool that is available, even if it’s not totally reliable.  At least on the Yukon they have other tools further upriver that they can judge the results of the sonar against.

The Department decided that their money would be well spent if they put a weir upstream on the Salmon River where they could get hard numbers for all salmon species.  There was a weir there beginning in 2006 that ran for about four years; one ADF&G biologist and myself operated it the first year it was in place.

Management Scenarios

The State has a projection of about 197,000 Chinook that they anticipate will return to the drainage this year.  They have been working on what’s called a run reconstruction for Chinook salmon with all the previous years’ data from all the projects.  It’s their best guess as to what the runs were like years ago and what we’ve got now.  In some years it’s estimated that as high as 300,000 or more Chinook have come back.

The Department considers the subsistence harvest to be about 70,000 a year.  As a part of the run reconstruction, they also attempt to come up with a drainage-wide escapement number that they believe would provide for sustainable returns.

They then work with those two numbers (subsistence needs + escapement needs) and determine whether or not there is a harvestable surplus for commercial fishing.

Here’s where things get – or got – interesting yesterday.

There is a pretty good disagreement as to what the Fish & Wildlife Service thinks should be coming back as far as total escapement throughout the drainage.  The State figured around 87,000 but the FWS is inclined to think that that number should be around 133,000…quite a difference.

This difference of opinion goes back many years, in fact ten or more from back when I was the biologist for the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge.

The State uses a computer model to look at past returns, and then the returns years later from those returns; it’s called a spawner-recruit model.  In places like Bristol Bay where they’ve been collecting data for 80 or more years, that can work pretty well.  But in places like the Kuskokwim where we have very limited data, it may not be any better than the sonar up the Aniak!

The Department pretty much goes with that model’s results, where the Fish & Wildlife Service believes that other ecological considerations should be considered.   The problem is trying to incorporate those things into a model…definitely not easy.  The FWS believes that the flesh, eggs, etc. that are eaten by so many animals (including young salmon) need to be considered into the mix, as well as the importance of the marine derived nutrients that salmon bring back with them.  Therefore, the FWS has always promoted more salmon returning.

When you look at the weir project numbers that are on the included Chinook Salmon Conservation poster, you can see that the past few years the escapement numbers for the Tuluksak and Kwethluk rivers is way down.  This is another reason the FWS would like to see higher escapement numbers to help build those populations back up.

How does that difference of opinion fit into this coming season’s management?  Lets go back to the projection that ADF&G believes will come back this year – 197,000.  If the subsistence needs are 70,000 and the escapement necessary (ADF&G’s number) is 87,000 – then there would be a harvestable surplus that could potentially be fished on; not that the Department would take the remaining 40,000 (197,000 – ((70,000+87,000)).  But they are hoping to fish on the chums knowing that there would be an incidental harvest of probably less than 1,000 Chinook.  Keep in mind that the decision makers are from the Commercial Fisheries Division – it’s their job to provide a fishery when fish are available.

BUT – if the Fish and Wildlife Service believes that 133,000 need to come back just for escapement alone, then that changes the harvestable surplus…or eliminates it in this case (70,000 + 133,000 is more than the expected 197,000).  So that now changes the Department’s management options.

In this scenario there couldn’t be a chum fishery until after all the kings went by…which is too late for the processor.  The processor needs to plan ahead knowing that he has some sort of a guarantee.

In deliberations earlier this week with the FWS the Department compromised in a sense and are considering 120,000 necessary for escapement; but depending on how accurate their projection is that doesn’t leave much room for a harvestable surplus if little more than 197,000 returned.  If less than that come back escapement won’t be met.

Keep in mind that all this is based off the one in-season tool that’s available – the Bethel Test Fishery.

And this got the Working Group concerned.  Lets go back to the State’s original escapement number of 87,000.  If 197,000 Chinook did show up – or was a little lower than that – the State wouldn’t anticipate any subsistence restrictions…at least not right off the bat.

As the run progressed and it turned out to be very weak, then rolling closures would likely be implemented with them starting at the mouth and working upstream.  If things were really bad, we in Napaimute would see a 7-day period closed at sometime; we would have at least a week or more notice as to when that would happen.  The closer to Kuskokwim Bay the shorter the notice would be.

But if the State conceded and went with the 133,000 escapement and the Bethel Test Fishery shows very few fish, then subsistence restrictions in the form of that rolling closure would kick in almost immediately for the downstream-most villages.

That would set off a panic situation much like last year…and no one wants that.  The Working Group and ADF&G will be trying to get the message out over various media outlets that there is a likelihood that sacrifices may be necessary this year in hopes that if closures are warranted, that people won’t be blind sided.

So at this time the State and feds haven’t come to consensus.  They will, however, be deliberating all this next week and try to find common ground by next Wednesday’s meeting that will disrupt as few people as possible.  Either way, be prepared for a weaker than normal run.

I attended the Alaska Forum on the Environment the week of Feb. 6-10, and here is a list of the sessions attended with some notes describing their pertinence.  Besides attending the sessions, the networking was very beneficial.  I was also able to meet with several federal employees that I’ve been working with concerning several of our projects.

On Wednesday I met with Ryan Maroney with NRCS and discussed the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) projects and our plans to fulfill our obligations with the timber harvest scheduled over the next few months.  Ryan suggested we fill out an application for the high tunnels where NRCS would reimburse us for a portion of the cost (Unfortunately we were not awarded the Community Environmental Demonstration Grant that I submitted a proposal for).  We are hoping to grow our own seedlings in the high tunnel that will then be planted as part of our EQIP obligation.  Ryan said he has been in touch with Fritz Grenfell from Bethel who is growing some test seedlings in Bethel this winter.

AK Forum sessions I attended:

• Realities of Kinetic Hydropower on Most of the Yukon River.  This was a good session because there have been several attempts to test hydropower in Ruby, Eagle and in the Tanana River.  All systems were hampered by woody debris, but the one in the Tanana (which was featured in this session) was affected least because it worked very much like a fish wheel; the others worked on a vertical axis and operated several feet further down in the water column.  The Tanana unit was fabricated on-site with local materials and quite sturdy compared to the pre-fabbed turbines.

I discussed the pro’s and cons of each type of turbine with Martin Leonard who actually worked on the Ruby turbine while working with the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council.  Martin, from Bethel, has worked all across the state on various renewable energy projects (e.g., wind, hydro & solar).  He knows, and introduced me to, several of the players with whom I submitted a recent proposal to; one acquaintance was Brian Hirsch with the U.S. Dept. of Energy/Office of Indian Energy.

• Mining & Water Quality.  Acid rock drainage and dissolved metals.

Bob Loeffler with UAA, previously with DNR, discussed the various methods/techniques the mining industry uses to address potential acid drainage concerns.  One of the statements I picked up on was that liners are not forever.  Hmmm.  He also said that the state has never permitted any mines where the water will have to be monitored for perpetuity.  But it seems that several proposed mines may fall into that category…including Donlin.

• Hazardous Waste Identification and Handling for Rural Alaska Villages

Two EPA employees described how to identify, categorize, consolidate, package and ship hazardous wastes.

• Aggressive Plants, Fish & Sea Squirts: Invasive Species in Fresh & Salt Water

One aquatic invasive plant – Elodea – has been documented in three Anchorage lakes, including Sand Lake, which is used by floatplanes (it’s only a matter of time before they transport it to some remote location).  It’s also thick in and around Chena Slough in Fairbanks and in one lake near Cordova.  This is not good!  ADF&G is working hard (and spending quite a bit of $$) to reduce the pike that have been introduced on the Kenai Peninsula.  They have altered ecosystems by consuming most, if not all, sticklebacks and greatly reduced rainbow trout and salmon populations.  ADF&G is focusing on a few lakes where a unique strain of Arctic char resides.

• Renewable Energy in Rural Alaska

Brian Hirsch (see kinetic energy discussion) presented along with Meera Kohler with AVEC (Alaska Village Electric Cooperative).   Moderating this session was the Deputy Secretary of the Dept. of Interior.  One of the main challenges of energy producers on the road system is tying their systems into the grid.  So far, we don’t have to worry about that.  Maintenance of systems in rural Alaska is a problem, mostly because of a lack of expertise.  However, Martin Leonard has been training local specialists.

• Scenes From Coming Attractions: Mineral Explorers and Developers

Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse with NovaGold & a biologist with the Pebble Partnership gave presentations.  Van Nieuwenhuyse spoke mostly about the Ambler development up north.  I asked him what the potential was for smaller operations being more viable once the Donlin project builds much of the non-existent infrastructure (I was referring to the Holokuk and Buckstock/Aniak drainages).  He said that he wasn’t aware of any promising exploration work.  I also asked about the need for limestone at Donlin to offset the acid generating waste rock, and he said that they would likely bring it in from off-site.  I asked if the Holitna was a possible source and he insinuated that it wasn’t likely.

• GPS Mapping For Geographical Information Systems on a Budget

I learned some tricks that will help with the biological monitoring and physical habitat quantification of the Holokuk River.

• Water Quality Sampling in Rural Alaska

I talked with Ryan Toohey (PhD with Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council – one of the presenters) about our past data collection efforts from the Kuskokwim and various tribs (including the Holokuk).  I’ll be sending him the data to see whether or not we’ll be able to use any of it (if you recall, our meter wasn’t properly functioning much of the time).

• Mercury In The Environment – An Introduction to Sources, Exposure and Health in Alaska

I attended several sessions on mercury (just prior to the Forum I submitted a proposal to monitor mercury deposition in the village).  Although we are getting mercury from Asian coal-fired power plants and are dealing with the remnants of the Kolmakof and Red Devil mines, not all mercury is harmful.  It is only when it is methylated, and the methylation process is not fully understood; that’s when bacteria acts on inorganic mercury to turn it into organic.  There is an ongoing study in the Yukon River drainage assessing the mercury levels, and one location where it was found was in an old dredged stream channel.  The presenter, a USGS scientist, believed that the dredging activity contributed to the triggering of the methylation process.  This has me wondering what levels of methyl mercury might be found in the area around NYAC.

The recent fish consumption advisories of the middle Kuskokwim resulting from the Red Devil study on pike and lush were discussed.

• Shaping Fisheries: Skills for Participating in the Public Process

This session discussed public involvement in the management of fisheries.

• Climate, Game Management & Subsistence Hunting

This session started out with a background previous predator control efforts by the state and Fish & Wildlife Service over the past 35 years.  Years ago there were bounties on Dolly Varden and hawks – things that would never fly now.  Then changes in wind patterns was looked at for disrupting subsistence opportunities in the Wainwright area.

• EPA Region 10 Tribal Program and Funding Opportunities

This session provided an introduction to EPA and Region 10’s Tribal Program, and an overview of the agency’s grant programs.

• Mercury, Permafrost, and Climate Change

Large stores of mercury are bound up in the permafrost from natural sources (e.g., volcanoes and forest fires) as well as far away human sources (e.g., Eurasian coal-fired power plants).  With climate change much of that mercury is being exposed and has the potential of being methylated and getting into the food chain.  I had really wished I had attended these presentations prior to submitting my mercury-monitoring proposal two weeks ago!

• USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service Partnership Project

The NRCS has worked with several Alaska tribes in forming Tribal Conservation Districts – Kwethluk being one of them.  These Districts are a way of devising a comprehensive plan to preserve and enhance the natural resources of the area and sustain the traditional subsistence way of life.  This may be something that Napaimute would like to pursue in the future, although we are already pretty much doing that.

• What’s Happening at Red Devil Mine?  A Talking Circle For Interested Kuskokwim Communities

This was a well-attended meeting, with people from up and down the Kuskokwim as well as representatives from Calista, Donlin Gold and DEC (Dept. of Environmental Conservation) being present.  The BLM (Jim Fincher, Mike McCrum and Matt Varner) gave an overview of where things stand today, and what we can expect for possible remediation and public meetings.  One Calista geologist was very interested in knowing how the state devised the fish consumption advisories, and how the levels in local fish compared to other Kuskokwim fish and tuna in the oceans that also have high levels of mercury.   

• Friday – Film Festival

On Friday morning I attended the film festival and watch movies about changing environmental conditions due to climate change and their affects on Alaskan’s subsistence way life, marine debris scattered about the oceans, the village of Craig that has been conducting a successful campaign with collecting washed up debris, and local village efforts to improve landfills and address other local environmental issues.

On Friday afternoon I attended a tele-symposium at UAA titled: A synchronous failure of juvenile Pacific salmon and herring in the Strait of Georgia and the poor return of sockeye salmon to the Fraser River in 2009.  Dick Beamish, a highly respected Canadian scientist, was in Juneau presenting information on the problems in the Fraser River.  The Fraser River is a huge producer of salmon and one that is not highly impacted from dams like the Columbia River is.  However, it has seen numerous developmental activities that have affected the salmon runs.  Besides typical land development, there are also aquaculture activities nearby that have some concerned that sea lice and the concomitant control efforts might have some negative influence on salmon.

Like the Kuskokwim and our king numbers, there are fluctuations in salmon populations occurring that are not readily explained.  Much of the unknowns do occur in the ocean, although some research is shedding light on what might be the causes.

Dave Cannon

Environmental Director

I attended the AVCP Salmon Summit from March 6^th-8^th, which focused on ways to conserve Chinook salmon and develop ways to incorporate more tribal involvement in salmon management.  The meeting was filled with numerous presentations by state and federal agencies (i.e., ADF&G, USFWS and NOAA).  Personally I was somewhat disappointed with some of the presentations because they weren’t tailored to the audience very well.  There could have been lots of good information disseminated to the majority in attendance who’ve never participated in the Salmon Management Working group over the years; as is often the case, several presentations were too technical and loaded with too many graphs and pie charts.  That was particularly pertinent for the elders who aren’t used to seeing Power Point type presentations and being bombarded with such detailed information by fast talking ologists.  Although the presentations could have helped with the discussions and breakout sessions that followed, I think they contributed to some confusion and exacerbated inherent disagreements.

Overlooking that, the big message on the first day of agency presentations was that the production of Chinook salmon overall is way down.  That includes not only the Chinook returning to the Kuskokwim, Yukon and Norton Sound regions, but South Central AK as well.  You can see by the graph below that we had high returns in 2006 and 2007, but they’ve continued to drop to where 2010 and 2011 were the lowest on record (note how they mirror numbers prior to the very low returns of 1998-2000).  Unfortunately, I think that message was lost throughout much of the rest of the meeting.

ADF&G Kuskokwim Commercial Fisheries Division Graph

Those numbers indicate to me that something might be happening out in the ocean.  That something is most likely ocean conditions themselves…or maybe the hot topic that continually popped up which was bycatch; or, as is often the case, it could be a combination of both.  One presentation that everyone enjoyed and understood was one that explained the ecological relationships during the Chinook’s salt-water residency.  Kate Myers talked about how natural regime shifts affect populations in the oceans, particularly in reference to where and when different age classes spend their time growing up and feeding…and what they eat.  She also discussed the implications of climate change.

Kate Myers, School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences, University of Washington (Ret.)

I was surprised to hear that in some years, the Chinook have, as part of their stomach contents, offal from pollock discarded by the processing boats; unfortunately, that isn’t as nutritious as the natural prey which can shift from year to year.  They’ve even found small amounts of plastic in their stomachs!

Kate Myers, School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences, University of Washington (Ret.)

If one were to have kept track of the words spoken over those 2 ½ days, I’m guessing that the word bycatch came up most often.  Unfortunately, that controversial topic is pretty complex and not something anyone in the Kuskokwim has any direct influence on.  That’s not to say that we shouldn’t keep trying to minimize how much occurs by getting involved in the process and pursuing having a subsistence delegate on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.  As the discussion focused on how to reduce – or totally eliminate – bycatch, several residents pointed out how many people in our region benefit from the pollock fishery through CVRF’s fleet.

One presentation showed that after that very controversial year of 2007 when the bycatch topped 120,000 kings, it’s dropped substantially due to time-area-closures.  However, it did did have a jump to around 24,000 last year.  It’s not certain, but a ballpark assumption is that roughly 15% of the Chinook bycatch may be coming to the Kuskokwim.  If that’s the case, then about 18,000 – a fairly high number – didn’t return in 2008 from those 122,000 caught in late summer of 2007.  However, that year a total of about 240,000 did make it back.  Another assumption is that bycatch numbers are high when overall Chinook populations are high.  Conversely, when the numbers are lower in the ocean, bycatch is lower.  So about 1,500 didn’t make it back last summer from the overall 10,000 bycatch that occurred in 2010.  The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is responsible for allocation, and although they are concerned with the bycatch numbers, they tend to believe that bycatch in the Kuskokwim, for the most part, doesn’t have a strong influence on the escapement (This is from a discussion I had with a biologist last year).

ADF&G Commercial Fisheries Division Graph

Prior to the breakout sessions a sheet was handed out with possible questions to consider, one being, “What can I do to help conserve salmon?”   Unfortunately, it got overshadowed by a few heated discussions on bycatch.  It’s my belief that what we need to focus on in these years of low returns are the things that we can control…which are our actions.  First and foremost in my mind would be how are we affecting escapements…especially quality of escapement (e.g., how many females and what age classes)?

If we are to discuss quality of escapement, then another controversial topic pops up – the possible restriction of subsistence gear size.  As you might guess, that topic came up from Kuskokwim people, mostly from those strongly opposing any restrictions.  As Calvin Simeon used to say, “It’s the white elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about.”

For last summer, both the Board of Fish and Federal Subsistence Board went to a 7 ½” regulation on the Yukon River to protect the larger fish, which tend to be females.  Preliminary data that I saw at the meeting showed that more and larger females made it back to the spawning grounds; but keep in mind that that is only one year’s worth of data.  Unfortunately, I heard that some of those now illegal nets have made their way down here to the Kuskokwim!

It’s important to keep in mind where that preliminary data come from.  It came from escapement projects.  How critical are such projects?  Well, the basic needs for managing the fish includes the number of fish returning to spawning areas, age and gender of those coming back, average size at a particular age, the genetic identifier of the particular spawning stocks (i.e., genetics that can tease out what fish are being caught where as bycatch), and run timing which shows when those fish show up at the mouth of the Kuskokwim and when they reach the spawning grounds.  One other component of fisheries management, and one that is derived from escapement goal projects is the harvest rate or exploitation.

I’ve included this bigger picture discussion about the need to maintain information projects throughout the drainage because it fits in with the theme of the meeting, which was to get more input into the management of the fisheries; in fact, many people are wanting co-management.  If the state or federal agencies are going to listen more to the people, then credibility is a must.  Traditional knowledge is important, but so is understanding the data and the need for it.

Look at the Kwethluk and Tuluksak weir information for kings on the following table.  Kwethluk the last two years had only 4,000 and 1,700 (10 year avg. was about 11,000) and Tuluksak 286 and 239 when the 10-year avg. was about 1,000 (one contributor to the decline of the run is the past habitat disruption of the river channel by dredge mining).  Keep in mind too that the majority of kings returning are almost always males.  So in 2010 only 62 females made it back to the Tuluksak while only 74 made it back last summer!  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that darn few eggs were deposited in the Tuluksak the past few years.

Projects like this are vital in understanding what’s escaping to the spawning grounds.

ADF&G Commercial Fisheries Division Table

If you go back to that very first graph you’ll see how many Chinook have been coming back each year and how many have been harvested in both the subsistence and commercial fisheries.  The black line is the exploitation rate that doesn’t seem to exceed 50%, and is usually much less than that.  Harvest is both commercial and subsistence with subsistence averaging around 70,000-80,000 a year, which is the largest subsistence Chinook fishery in the state.  Of late, the commercial catch has been very low and it generally takes the smaller kings that tend to be the males; the reason being the restricted mesh size that commercial fishermen are allowed to use.

So the subsistence harvest is pretty substantial and contributes the most to the exploitation rate.  Looking at the high level of subsistence harvest in 2008, it’s speculated that many people caught fish for relatives and friends in the Yukon that did extremely poor.  In years of low returns the subsistence harvest then is a large component of the exploitation rate…and you can’t keep taking too many fish.  Several people, including Earl Samuelson, pointed out the size of Bethel, and that they may need some restrictions before any of the villages.

ADF&G Commercial Fisheries Division Graph

That tells me that there is a real need for all to sacrifice, not just Bethel residents, and allow as many larger females to escape when runs get so weak.  The villages of Akiak and Kwethluk did their part by reducing their harvest by almost half!  The problem is that not everyone throughout the drainage did…but it’s time that we all do our part for the good of the kings.

Dave Cannon

Environmental Director