Chinook, or king salmon, have declined sharply in the Nushagak watershed, prompting action by the Board of Fish this spring. While the river’s sockeye population continues to push historical records, the Nushagak king run has fallen short of minimum escapement goals five of the last six years. Last fall, the state declared Nushagak kings a stock of concern and the Board of Fish approved an action plan in an attempt to conserve them.
Tim Sands, area management biologist for Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said the goal of the Nushagak King action plan is to allow more time for chinook to swim up to spawning grounds. That means delaying the opener for commercial fishing.
"To allow us to try and take additional action to protect king salmon, we're going to sacrifice some opportunity on sockeye salmon. So that we have more chances of making the king salmon escapement goal," Sands explained.
Fish and Game biologists are monitoring that escapement goal through the sonar site, counting towers and aerial surveys, which will determine when managers open commercial fishing.
Sands explained there are three triggers to open up fishing.
"If we project 420,000 sockeye salmon past the sonar that said it would satisfy the Nushagak Sockeye trigger. We could satisfy the Wood River trigger by having 800,000 sockeye salmon projected past the Wood River tower," he said. "And then if we don't satisfy either one of those triggers, the final trigger is June 28. We could start fishing then. So we only have to satisfy one trigger. We don't have to satisfy all three. And they could go in any order."
These triggers signify the starting pistol for the fishing season in the district.
Sands says he suspects the projected 420,000 sockeye escapement trigger in the Nushagak River to be the first pistol sounded. That’s because the sonar site is 25 miles upriver of the fishing area, so the team estimates the number of fish that are en route before they hit the river.
"There's a lag travel time between the district and the sonar site. So if we see that the fish are past the district, and are in the river moving towards the sonar site, that's where we would be projecting the amount of fish past the sonar," Sands said.
Setnetting and subsistence harvests in the Nushagak are unaffected by these regulation changes.
