ADFG Kuskokwim River Fishery Announcement #3

Photo by ADFG.

CONTACT: Sam Decker, Kuskokwim Area Management Biologist, (907) 543-2709

For Immediate Release: June 14, 2024

Time: 4:30 p.m.

Kuskokwim River Fishery Announcement #3: Emergency Order #3-S-WR-03-24

This is an announcement from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) in Bethel for subsistence fishermen in the Kuskokwim Area.

Subsistence Section 4

Aniak Box: The waters of the Kuskokwim River from the Yukon Delta NWR boundary at Aniak upstream to a line formed between two points lat 61° 35.308ʹ N, long 159° 29.167ʹ W and lat 61° 34.731ʹ N, long 159° 28.939ʹ W (Figure 1) will remain closed to gillnets until further notice. Subsistence fishing with hook and line, fish wheel with live box or chute, beach seines and dip nets is allowed, but all king salmon must be returned to the water alive. This provides additional conservation measures for king salmon entering the Aniak River.

As previously announced all management actions in AA02-24 remain in effect in all state waters of the Aniak River.

The Kuskokwim Working Group met today, while they did not have quorum, the majority of the members supported this motion. The department manages Kuskokwim River salmon fisheries as directed by the Alaska Board of Fisheries under 5 AAC 07.365 Kuskokwim River Salmon Management Plan. The plan provides management direction to achieve salmon run abundance large enough to meet escapement goals and provide for sustainable fishing in the long-term. The department uses the best available data, including preseason and inseason run projections, test fishing indices, age and sex composition, harvest reports, sonar estimates, and recognized data uncertainty, to assess run abundance for the purpose of implementing the plan. Kuskokwim River salmon stocks shall be managed in a conservative manner consistent with the Policy for the Management of Sustainable Salmon Fisheries under 5 AAC 39.222 to meet escapement goals and the subsistence harvest priority on the identified surplus.

The preseason forecast of Kuskokwim River king salmon is for a range of 108,000 to 160,000 fish. Current assessment and harvest reports indicate that the king salmon run is just beginning to build in the lower Kuskokwim River, which is similar to recent years. As of June 13, the Bethel test fishery cumulative CPUE for king salmon was 23. Bethel test fishery CPUE are tracking the 2018 and 2020–2022 king salmon runs, which had total runs of approximately 133,000, 124,000, 130,000, and 142,000 fish, respectively. Drainage-wide escapement in 2018 and 2020–2022 was around 110,000, 88,000, 101,000, and 108,000 fish, respectively.

In subsistence sections 4 and 5 of the Kuskokwim River, the annual harvest of king salmon in 2023 was about 800 fish, less than 7 king salmon per household. Given the current assessment of the king salmon run and the ability to provide for the additional harvesting of non-salmon species, providing king salmon fishing opportunity in subsistence sections 4 and 5 is warranted.

Kuskokwim River Salmon Working Group:

The next Working Group meeting is scheduled for June 19, 2024, from 10:00 a.m. to noon., by teleconference or in-person, at the Bethel ADF&G office. This meeting is open to the public. Please call 1-800-315-6338, passcode: 58756#, to attend via teleconference.

Further announcements will be made from the Bethel Fish and Game office, on the State of Alaska web site (http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=cfnews.main), local radio stations, and Kuskokwim River Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/KuskoRiverFishingADFG/). Advisory Announcements will be faxed to area villages. For additional information or questions regarding Kuskokwim Area fisheries, contact the Alaska Department of Fish and Game office in Bethel at 543-2433 or toll free at 1-855-933-2433.

For information regarding federal subsistence fishing regulations and any announcements, please contact the Yukon Delta NWR at (907) 543-3151 or (907) 543-1021.

For additional information concerning this advisory announcement: ADF&G: Sam Decker 907-543-2709 or Dave Runfola 907-543-2331