Kuskokwim subsistence coho fishing closes upriver starting Friday

Subsistence coho fishing closes at 5 p.m. Friday for Chuathbaluk, Crooked Creek, Georgetown, Red Devil and Sleetmute, and a week later for Stony River, McGrath, Nikolai and Takotna, under an emergency order the Alaska Department of Fish and Game issued Thursday from its Bethel office. The Section 4 closure runs through 5 p.m. Aug. 28; the Section 5 closure runs from that hour through 5 p.m. Sept. 4. Gillnets are shut in all flowing waters of both sections and their tributaries. Fishwheels, beach seines, dipnets and hook and line stay legal for whitefish, sheefish, pike and non-coho salmon, but any coho caught must go back in the water alive.

Both monitoring counts fall below their benchmarks. Cumulative coho passage at the Kuskokwim River sonar was roughly 156,000 fish as of Aug. 19, against an average near 233,000 for that date. At the Kogrukluk weir, 112 coho had been counted as of Aug. 16, compared with a sustainable escapement goal of 13,000 to 28,000. The amount necessary for subsistence, set by the Alaska Board of Fisheries, is 27,400 to 57,600 coho. "It is unlikely that harvest will meet ANS this year," the department said, adding that reducing subsistence harvest is warranted to achieve the escapement goal and sustain future coho runs.

Alaska News previously covered the Aug. 7 state order shutting subsistence coho fishing in Sections 1 through 3, when sonar showed about 43,000 fish against an average of roughly 106,500. Federal managers followed on Aug. 12: the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge closed federal public waters to gillnets and coho retention through Sept. 15, including for federally qualified subsistence users. Refuge Manager Spencer Rearden said that this year's run of silver salmon, also called coho, is tracking similar to 2022, the lowest return in more than two decades.

The state restrictions now cover Sections 1 through 5; the federal action applies separately in federal public waters, part of a broader pattern of depressed Western Alaska runs and tightening restrictions. The Kuskokwim River Salmon Management Working Group meets Wednesday at 10 a.m. in Bethel and by teleconference, and ADF&G says restrictions may be liberalized if abundance climbs.