A full closure of the Yukon River chinook salmon fishery this summer is being recommended by the Yukon Salmon Sub-committee.

The committee will be conducting a community tour between now and the first week of June to drum up community support for the proposal, Pauline Frost, the committee's acting chair, explained Wednesday.

Frost said she doesn't anticipate any problems gaining the support, as the Yukon's First Nations have been calling for a closure to protect the troubled chinook run for a few years now.

"At the end of this process, we will put to the minister (federal Fisheries minister) a solid recommendation from the communities, from the First Nations and the committee,” she said.

Frost acknowledged they need the federal minister on board to effect the closure on the Yukon side of the border.

The State of Alaska has already announced it will be implementing a complete closure on the chinook run, including a full closure of the subsistence fishery for the first time in Alaska's history.

The Yukon River chinook salmon run has been depressed for several years now, with virtually no commercial harvest on either side of the border.

The aboriginal harvest on the Yukon side of the border in the last two years – around 2,000 chinook each summer – was the worst in decades.

Restrictions imposed on Alaska's subsistence fishery resulted in a harvest of about 11,000 chinook last summer, the lowest in more than 50 years of records.

Twenty years ago, in contrast, Alaska's subsistence fishery took 53,077 chinook, and the state's commercial fishery harvested 113,137 fish, according to records.

That same summer, Yukon First Nations harvested 8,069 and the commercial fishery in Dawson City took 12,028.

The total harvest on both sides of the border in 1994 was 186,311 chinook.

It's estimated a total of 75,000 chinook entered the river last summer, based on the harvest numbers and the sonar count at Eagle, Alaska, just below the Yukon-Alaska border.

It's estimated that 30,573 passed by Eagle, well below the 42,500 scientists have identified as the minimum target for spawning escapement in the Yukon.

Under the management plan for the Yukon side, only aboriginal food fishing is allowed if the border passage is expected to be lower than 42,500.

Under the management plan, First Nations have to stop fishing when the border passage is expected to be 30,000 or lower.

Frost explained the salmon committee is recommending no fishing for chinook at all until the minimum of 42,500 chinook needed for spawning have passed by the Eagle sonar.

Even if the minimum escapement target is reached, Yukon First Nations will still have to give careful thought about whether they want to go fishing for their traditional food, Frost agreed.

She further acknowledged for the Yukon First Nations to take any kind of harvest this year may not go over well on the other side of the border after Alaskans were forced to take no chinook.

Scientists on both sides of the border are forecasting a total chinook run of between 64,000 and 122,000.

The Yukon portion is normally estimated at 50 per cent, equaling a forecast of somewhere between 32,000 and 61,000 reaching the territory this summer.

Management biologist Eric Neuland of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said Thursday while Alaskans are very passionate about their right to fish and put food on the table, there is a growing understanding about the need to conserve the chinook stock.

Last year, when the state imposed strict fishing requirements – including a ban on gill nets in favour of dip nets so that any chinook caught accidentally while fishing for chum salmon could be released alive – there was acceptance, the biologist said.

Neuland said recognition of the pressing need for conservation still exists. He expects the vast majority of Alaskans living along the watershed will abide by the full closure.

There will be some resistance among those who don't agree, just as there will likely be some resistance in the Yukon, Neuland said.

He said the department will be staffing up its office near the mouth of the Yukon River on Sunday.

Breakup, Neuland explained, occurred last week, and the arrival of the first chinook will likely be in the next few days. The full closure won't go into effect with the arrival of the first chinook, but he does expect it will be not be long after as the run begins building.

Neuland said it's not realistic to think no chinook will be caught as Alaskans fish for other species as they normally do, but the state is taking every precaution to get as close to zero as possible.

"We know the projected run size does not allow for any surplus and they all need to go to escapement, and we are going to do our best to see that that happens.”

As the acceptance for conservation settles in with Alaskans, there is a corresponding and growing desire to know why the chinook are in so much trouble, he said.

Neuland said the scientific community doesn't know.

There is, however, similar patterns of decreasing salmon stocks in other watersheds across the state, leading some to suspect whatever is happening, it's happening out in the ocean, he said.