BETHEL, Alaska (AP) - Statistics from the Bethel Test Fishery show king salmon numbers this year are similar to 2012 and 2013 numbers that were minimized by a population crash.
Anglers caught about 10,000 kings in each of those years, and numbers indicate 2017 could see much of the same, KYUK-AM reported (https://bit.ly/2rYPtft ).
The state Department of Fish and Game shared the low numbers at a meeting on Wednesday in Bethel. But the standing-room only crowd was not surprised - they’ve known for a while something isn’t right.
Walter Jim, President of a Bethel native council, says he usually has half his smokehouse filled by this time of the year, but as he looks out across the river, he doesn’t see anybody else’s smoke rolling out either.
Officials do not know why numbers are so low, but restrictions have been put in place, which some people say are making the shortage worse. Officials will be meeting with the state and the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission on Friday to consider lessening a restriction on gill-net fishing since the situation for people who depend on the river for food has become so desperate.
There hasn’t been a gill-net fishing opening on the Kuskokwim River for more than a week; since federal officials took over management of the river’s mouth.
Ivan Ivan traveled from Akiak to attend the meeting. He said without fish, people were in “mental anguish.”
“We are fish people,” Ivan said. “We need fish. They’re desperate right now.”
Officials reminded residents that other forms of fishing besides gill net remain open, like rod and reel, fish wheels and dip nets. These methods allow kings to be returned to the water alive to reach their spawning grounds.
But residents said that these methods, along with years of being limited to 4-inch (10-centimeter) mesh gill nets, could be depleting whitefish, which are smaller than salmon.
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Information from: KYUK-AM, https://www.kyuk.org
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