According to biologists cold waters in the Alaska Current sweeping the Gulf of Alaska warned them salmon were likely to return later than normal. It is said that the result might be a disaster. On the Yukon River commercial fishing is ban. Subsistence fishing there has been cut back significantly. And biologists with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game are still worried that too few salmon will escape nets and fish wheels to ensure future runs.
There some who demand for a moratorium on fishing for Yukon kings. They are worried Alaska fisheries could snare enough fish bound for Canada, where much of the Yukon run spawns. First Nations’ chief Carl Sidney told that we are at the end of the line, and we’re the ones that see this fish is in trouble. He added that commercial fishing and their subsistence fishery over there are totally out of hand.
Alaska officials have defended early management decisions based on indications that salmon runs all over the state are late. Jeff Regnart, Fish and Game’s supervisor of commercial fisheries in Southcentral Alaska, informed that he has first-hand experience with just the sort of problem that happened on the Yukon.
The authority is now doing genetics studies to determine which rivers are losing fish to the trawlers, but even if the take is more than the 130,000 reported, it is doubtful it would have much affect on any individual Alaska river. Regnart said cold water in the Gulf of Alaska has him worried that the North Pacific could be in for a long-feared “regime change,” but that it’s way too early to even start thinking about that.
