Positive chinook run sees fishery thrown open
For the first time in three years, anglers and commercial boats will be permitted to fish for Yukon River chinook.
For the first time in three years, anglers and commercial boats will be permitted to fish for Yukon River chinook.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans informed the commercial industry in Dawson City this morning that the first opening will start at noon tomorrow and run to midnight Friday.
The sport fishery will open at noon Thursday, and will remain open until further notice.
The domestic fishery - a small, non-aboriginal food fishery - opens and closes with the commercial fishery.
Yukon first nations were informed last week that a stronger-than-expected run of chinook allows for a full aboriginal subsistence fishery for the first time in three years.
DFO management biologist Sandy Johnston said this morning that as of Tuesday, the sonar at Eagle, Alaska just below the Yukon-Alaska border counted 55,600 chinook, compared to 19,000 at the same point last year and an annual average of 38,800.
The management plan establishes a minimum target of allowing 45,000 chinook to reach the spawning grounds in the Yukon.
Until the overall run strength hits 54,000, the only fishery permitted is a reduced first nation fishery.
Once the 54,000 is reached, a full first nation fishery is permitted and any additional fish will be made available for the sport, commercial and domestic fishery, based on the catch sharing arrangement with the Alaskans.
In 2006, the aboriginal fishery harvested 5,757 chinook, the commercial boats took 2,332, anglers caught 606 and the domestic fishery harvested 63.
A limited aboriginal fishery has been the only fishery permitted for the past two summers because of poor returns. First nations harvested 2,885 chinook last year.
Johnston and others credit additional management efforts by the Alaskans for more chinook reaching the border than expected.
The Alaskan subsistence fishery, for instance, was curtailed again for the second year in a row, and additional steps were taken to implement closures to protect the early run of Yukon-origin salmon.
Pre-season run estimates suggested it would be another year of a restricted aboriginal fishery, and no other fisheries.
Whether there will be more openings for commercial and domestic fishery will depend largely on continuing assessments of the run strength, Johnston said.
He also noted that anglers must have a valid fishing licence, and a salmon conservation card.
They're permitted to keep one chinook per day, and have two in their possession.
Johnston said there had not been any chinook through the fish ladder at the Whitehorse Rapids Dam as of Tuesday, but some were seen swimming below the ladder.
Comments (3)
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Max on Aug 4, 2009 at 7:46 am
I fear that DFO has jumped the gun. Sonar counts should have been verified by manual sampling, particularly given the fluctuations we have seen over the last few years, the anticipated reduction in numbers and the closures on the Alaskan side. Sonar counts can be wrong. DFO should be asking whether the recent sonar counts are realistic. Something seems askew. It's unlikely DFO has the political will to re-examine the counts. As the saying goes, "the cows are already out of the barn".
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steve erskine on Jul 31, 2009 at 9:01 am
Isn't this because the native subsistence users in Alaska had their take dramatically reduced this year?
So subsistence folks in Alaska lost fish so that commercial folks in Canada could make a profit on them.
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Jerry Domnick on Jul 31, 2009 at 6:43 am
I'm happy to hear escapement will be met and that people in the Yukon can harvest fish for their food and that there will be enough to insure the continuance of the run. Despite the apparent abundance of chinook salmon crossing the border, I feel it was a poor decision, politically, and more than just a bit insensitive to open the commercial and sport fishery. People at the mouth of the Yukon were told that restrictions had to be put in place because of shortages. They had no commercial chinook fishery again this year and, far more significantly, they were *severely* restricted in their ability to catch chinook salmon for food to carry them through the winter - something they traditionally depend on. The sacrifice was enormous and people may suffer hardship this winter because of it in an area where chinook salmon play a major role in peoples' nutrition. It just seems incredibly rude to see others harvesting to make money and for recreation after other families sacrificed so much personally for the fish to be there. Someone wasn't thinking!