Today in Bethel, our community-based harvest monitors and fish technicians from ONC got together for training before the 2021 king salmon season begins. These folks will be out on the river and at local fish camps gathering important information about king salmon harvests and biology from subsistence fishermen and women. That information goes directly to KRITFC and ONC to produce king salmon run size estimates used by fish managers – meaning that info from Kuskokwim fishing families themselves guides the decisions that managers from KRITFC, USFWS, and ADF&G make throughout the season.

In these photos, KRITFC harvest monitors and ONC fish techs practice sampling a king salmon for age, sex, and length biological data.

At today's training, we learned about the importance of community-led harvest monitoring and took age, sex, and length samples from one of the first kings of the season. ONC's fish technicians delivered the fish to Bethel Elders after the training.

KRITFC's harvest monitors so far this year are:

• William Egoak, Kwethluk

• Alfred Epchook, Kwethluk

• Colleen Andrew, Kwethluk

• Emmitt Nicori, Napakiak

• Brianna Dock, Tuntutuliak

• James Heakin, Eek

Quyana to each of these fishermen and women for the work they will be doing on the river this season!

Above image: Mary Peltola, Terese Schomogyi, Bill Bechtol, LaMont Albertson, Alfred Epchook (Kwethluk), Emmitt Nicori (Kwethluk and Napakiak), William Egoak (Kwethluk), and James Heakin (Eek) at the training.

Learn more about how the Community-Based Harvest Monitoring program impacts Kusko fisheries management.