A Kodiak king salmon collapse is squeezing everyone who fishes

Kodiak's king salmon are collapsing. Last year, 93 Chinook made it up the Karluk River to spawn — against a goal of at least 3,000. Ayakulik managed 444, against a goal of nearly 4,800. The state doesn't expect Karluk to reach its range in 2026 either.

That failure is why the commercial salmon fleet spent July fishing by the clock. Fish and Game opened most of the archipelago for two brief 57-hour windows this month, each carved up with closures meant to keep boats off the weakest runs, and barred purse seiners from keeping any king 28 inches or longer.

The squeeze lands on everyone. The timed openings are the fleet's income, and the closures cut into it. For subsistence and sport fishermen, the same restrictions — including a shutdown of the Buskin River and a federal closure of Womens Bay to sockeye — take fish off the table now in hopes of leaving enough kings to rebuild the runs later.