Bristol Bay saw it’s largest run on record in 2021. As of July 22, 64.2 million sockeye had returned to the bay. As salmon swim upriver to return to their spawning grounds, biologists track numbers to balance conservation with commercial fishing.
This summer, Sooz Green packed her bags to travel north from New Mexico to Bristol Bay.
Green is one of three tower counters on the Wood River. Each summer, counters staff the rivers around Bristol Bay to count sockeye as they swim upriver. They then send those numbers on to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Each morning Green starts her day with a six-minute skiff ride down river. Then, she climbs the four-story tower built from scaffolding.
“I climb up, I start the timer at the top of the hour on the right bank and I count for 10 minutes, depending on how many fish there are I might have two clickers," she said.
She counts for ten minutes with a hand-held clicker. Once the ten minutes are up she records the total in her notebook.
Then, she crosses the river to do the same thing at the second tower. All in all, it’s a lot of climbing.
“So I calculated if you are climbing up just one during your count, that’s 16. At least 16 times a shift up and down,” she said.
The Wood River site is one of nine counting stations around Bristol Bay. It has operated since the mid-1950s.
Many jobs contribute to successful conservation of the Bristol Bay fishery. Phill Stacey is a fishery biologist and West Side tower coordinator with Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Stacey said the tower counters are critical, because those numbers inform area managers’ decisions on when to open and close commercial fishing.
“We know how many are getting into the lake systems to spawn and that will allow us to manage the fishery more accurately because we only need a certain number of escapement to actually be sustainable,” Stacey said.
The Wood River counting tower is especially important in years when there are conservation concerns. The Nushagak’s Chinook run started slow this summer, and biologists waited for more than 150,000 sockeye to pass the tower until they let fishermen cast their nets.
For Green, this job fits perfectly into her transient lifestyle. When not counting fish in Alaska, Green lives out of a school bus in New Mexico where she spends a lot of time rock climbing.
Between counts she passes the time with workouts. She has also had some tranquil nature moments.
“I have a couple of bald eagle friends who have been keeping a close eye on me," she said. "There is a big moose cow and two calves during my first shift she was coming out around midnight.”
In addition to nature watching and staying active, Green assists with genetic sampling.
Green said her time on the Wood River made her realize the job is pretty important.
“After having done the work and having hands-on experience with the fish just realizing how important it is making sure these fish aren’t over-fished," Green said. "I feel really good about contributing to the system that we have in place and making sure this species doesn’t get overfished.”
Green counted sockeye every day for six weeks, and she hung up her clicker on July 24 when the Wood River tower closed up shop for the summer. She plans to return next season, with her counter in hand.
Contact the author at stephanie@kdlg.org or 907-842-2200.