A Yukon River fish processing plant at Kaltag that was named one of the “greenest fisheries” in the world has gone for summer vacation. According to the operator of the plant the reason behind such closure is fixed fishing time limit imposed by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The limit is unnecessary because the business does not target the depleted king salmon run, says the operator. But the manager said that the department had to impose the limit to protect king salmon and treat fishermen along the river equitably.
Doug Karlberg, owner of Yukon River Gold, said the department’s limit left him with too little time to make money. Yukon kings begin swimming up the river before the summer chums, but the two runs usually overlap for a few weeks. Regulators only allowed the fishwheels that supply the Yukon River Gold plant to begin operating once the kings had passed the Kaltag area. That gave the plant about 20 days to work on the remaining portion of the chum run, and it wasn’t enough to pay the bills, Karlberg said.
He informed that for two years, Fish and Game stationed observers in Kaltag to watch the fishwheel and processing operation. Last year the observers saw there was no king bycatch. The department’s area manager, Steve Hayes, said that’s not quite the case. Hayes said that severe restrictions have been imposed on subsistence king salmon fishing along the Yukon River this year.
