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About the Commercial Fisheries
Update 10/2/03
As expected this summer, once again we
benefited from no commercial fishing activity in the bay. This was reflected in
the strong runs of salmon this year. The sockeye run this year was the best in
almost 30 years on the Alagnak River, estimates ranged from 3-3.5 million fish!
Once again though, our neighboring river, the Kvichak, had a poor run and failed
to meet it's escapement goal on sockeye salmon. As a result of this, the good
news for us is that the commercial fishing closures over the past few years
caused by the poor sockeye runs on the Kvichak will continue. Right now, the
forecast is that there will not be any commercial fishing for a few years to
come, if not longer. This is excellent news for sport fishing on the Alagnak
River. We have lived with the impact of commercial fishing for 20 years, and
have enjoyed great fishing through that time, but there's no doubt that the
fishing should be even better without nets in the bay!
Posted 1/4/03
For the second year in a row, we anticipate
that there will be no commercial fishing to affect the salmon runs on the
Alagnak River this summer. For us this is the perfect situation, since usually
the closure of commercial fishing follows from poor runs, but in this case, the
closures are due to poor runs that are specific to our neighboring river. As a
result we get the obvious benefit of the closures, without the concerns that
would typically come with them. For more detail, please take the time to read
below.
With the incredible numbers of salmon
returning to the rivers of SW Alaska each year, commercial fishing has always
been an important part of the local economy, and commercial fishing activities
in the bay have always been a factor to consider when sport fishing the Alagnak
River and other Bristol Bay area rivers. The most important commercial fishery
is without doubt the sockeye salmon fishery. Sockeyes (or red salmon) are easily
the most plentiful of the pacific salmon, the sockeye run for Bristol Bay
numbers in the 10's of millions of fish on a good year. Other salmon such as
kings or silvers are fished commercially in some parts of Bristol Bay, such as
the Nushagak River, but the only commercial fishing that affects us on the
Alagnak is for the sockeyes. The Dept. of Fish and Game has the thankless task
of managing the resources, which involves allowing enough salmon up the rivers
to spawn, whilst considering the interests of subsistence, commercial and sport
fishing. Historically the main impact to us on the Alagnak has been in late June
and early July when the sockeye run is peaking. On certain days, the commercial
fishery is opened, and on these days a lot fewer salmon will head up the river,
on other days, the commercial fishing is closed to allow an escapement of salmon
into the river to spawn, and plenty of salmon will come
in on each tide.
While the sockeye salmon run on the Alagnak
is good, it is smaller than that on our neighboring river, the
Kvichak. In fact, the sockeye run on the Kvichak has historically been the
largest run of any species of wild salmon anywhere in the world. An important
part of the life cycle of sockeye salmon is that they spend the first year of
life living in a lake, before heading out to salt water. With the Kvichak River
flowing out of Lake Illiamna, the largest freshwater lake in Alaska, and the
numerous feeder streams that flow into the lake providing perfect spawning
grounds, it is easy to see why the Kvichak can sustain such the largest run.
Other species of salmon spawn in the river itself, so with the long braided
section on the Alagnak providing excellent spawning areas, it is easy to see why
the Alagnak sustains stronger runs of the other four salmon species.
For the last few years, the sockeye salmon
runs on the Kvichak River have been very low compared to their historical
levels. While many factors can affect salmon runs, and they are cyclical in
nature, these slow runs have created much concern since they have been specific
to the Kvichak and have not affected neighboring rivers such as the Alagnak. The
result of this is that the Dept. of Fish & Game has been forced to take action
to protect the Kvichak River sockeye runs. In 2000, this action took the form of
reduced openings for the commercial fishing, as well as closures of sport
fishing. An unfortunate side effect of this for us was that they also closed
sport fishing for sockeyes on the Alagnak. If you are not familiar with the
geography of the area, the Alagnak River flows into the Kvichak River almost at
the mouth of the Kvichak, and then quickly into Bristol Bay. (Sidenote: This is
why the Alagnak is often referred to as the Branch River). Hence the Kvichak and
Alagnak are considered to be the same drainage, and the sport fishing closure
was announced for the Kvichak drainage, hence including the Alagnak River as
well. We were frustrated by this closure, since the sockeye run on the Alagnak
was very strong that year, but overall the effect was minimal, since by the time
the closure took effect (July 15th), it was already close to the end of the
sockeye run, and we were focused on kings and chums. This has been the only
closure in recent times on the Alagnak River. Other rivers such as the Nushagak
for example, have been closed to sport fishing for both kings and silvers in
recent years, since the Fish and Game Dept. is a lot more cautious with salmon
runs when there are commercial fishing interests involved. These closures are
very frustrating to sport fisherman since they typically come at very short
notice.
Similar closures followed in 2001 for the
Kvichak River, but this time they were specific to the river and not the
drainage, since it was clear the Alagnak was doing fine. For the year 2002, as
concern deepened, Fish and Game took the major step of announcing in January
that they were closing down the commercial fishing in the Kvichak District of
Bristol Bay. This is the part of the bay right outside the mouth of the Alagnak
River. They also restricted commercial fishing in other parts of the bay, moving
these fisheries into the river mouths, so they were not affecting fish moving up
the bay towards the Kvichak River. The net result of this is that there were no
commercial fishing activities in the bay that affected the salmon runs on the
Alagnak. With poor sockeye projections on the Kvichak for 2003, we fully
anticipate the same situation, and the obvious advantages it brings to our
salmon runs, this summer. With all salmon allowed to enter the river unimpeded,
we expect our runs to be even better than in the past.
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