A minimum of 42,500 chinook are supposed to get to their Canadian spawning waters to meet conservation goals. Only 15,300 of those fish made it to Eagle, near the Yukon border.

Yukon River chinook salmon runs have been steadily declining, with 2022 the smallest run on record. As the fish disappear, Yukon First Nations fear the cultures and traditions built around the salmon over countless generations will too.

The dam altered the subsistence gathering patterns of the Tagish Kwan, the Daḵká Kwa’an and the Kwanlin Dün people. Residences, cabins and fish camps along the Whitehorse rapids were dismantled, gatherings at M’Clintock stopped, and many people dispersed to Fish Lake and Whitehorse.

The Yukon First Nations Education Directorate gave away 30,000 pounds of free fish as part of its nutritional program in Whitehorse this week. People were particularly happy to receive the donation because salmon are well below the historical average this year.

The Yukon Salmon Sub-Committee is recommending the complete cessation of fishing for Chinook salmon this year on the Yukon River.

The number of chinook salmon that reached the Whitehorse fish ladder this year hit a 40-year low, and it's not clear why. Just 282 chinook passed through the fish ladder this year, compared to 690 last year. "We did see some large pre-spawn mortality die-offs in a tributary of the Yukon River — the Koyukuk in Alaska. This was for summer chum, and not chinook — but we expect that that higher water temperature also affected the chinook migrating through."

The Whitehorse fish ladder is seeing a slower start to the season than usual, with fewer fish than average having passed through at this point compared to previous years.

For more than five years, Southeast’s iconic king salmon have been returning in fewer and fewer numbers. Managers with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game are recommending Chilkat, Unuk and King Salmon River Chinooks become official “stocks of concern.” Listen now

‘It’s still only about half of the historical average,’ fisheries official says

Yukon subsistence fishermen face challenges with gear restrictions, closures, and reports of salmon potentially infected with ichthyophonus, impacting their summer fishing activities.