Amid severely restricted fishing on the Kuskokwim River, one bright spot has been abundant sockeye salmon runs at 30,000 fish daily near Bethel.
Biologists do not expect either to reach their goals for fish reaching their spawning grounds.
The booming Bristol Bay salmon run has broken the record set just last year, while on the Yukon River, Chinook are too scarce to harvest.
A decades-long decline in salmon in the Yukon River has reached a crisis this year, forcing harvest closures and prompting emergency shipments of salmon from other regions of Alaska to river residents who are otherwise facing food shortages.
Chum returns are the lowest on record, leaving communities with empty freezers and uncertainty about getting through the winter.
The Kuskokwim River king salmon run does not look particularly strong this year, but chum numbers look even worse. Historically, around 60% of the salmon in the river at this point in the season would be chum or sockeye, but right now Bethel Test Fishery numbers show that just over 20% of the salmon are.
The size of king salmon returning to Western Alaska rivers to spawn has been decreasing over the past few decades. Researchers at the University of Alaska
Usually Aug. 7 is the midpoint of the coho run, but this year it was not until Aug. 8 that numbers at the Bethel test fishery increased, and then only modestly.
As record high temperatures swept Alaska, many people said that the heat was killing them. For Kuskokwim salmon, it was actually true.
Subsistence families along the Kuskokwim River are cutting open fish to find white balls or white streaks deforming the meat.
As fishing restrictions push salmon harvests on the Kuskokwim River later into the wet part of summer, families are seeking new ways to dry their fish and keep bugs away.
Smelt caught in Bethel with fungal infection previously found in the Norton Sound region.
How will climate change affect health in Alaska? Dangerous travel conditions could cause more accidents, warmer temperatures could spread new diseases and the topsy-turvy weather could worsen mental health. Those are some conclusions from a new state report released Monday. Listen now
Some local officials suspect water pollution killed the fish, but state officials offered an alternative explanation.
Smart started finding dead fish in his trap near Dull Lake about two or three weeks ago. Now there are hundreds and hundreds of them.Some local officials suspect water pollution killed the fish, but state officials offered an alternative explanation. According to the Fish and Game representative a local fisherman forgot to check a blackfish trap and may have dumped the dead fish in Dull Lake.
Residents who have long depended on chinook salmon to fill drying racks and smokehouses are worried about their food for next winter.
Early breakup brings early arrivals.
Fish had a brownish moldy growth all over its body.
Kuskokwim River chum salmon numbers remain off-the-charts low. However, sockeyes are still coming in strong. Meanwhile, the summer rain has not been
On the Yukon River, subsistence salmon fishing is being closed to protect king salmon as they migrate upriver.
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