Kuskokwim subsistence salmon harvest survey did not run in 2026 after missing federal grant

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game did not run its postseason subsistence salmon harvest survey on the Kuskokwim River this year after the survey's federal grant request went unfunded. The department's slide for the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Subsistence Regional Advisory Council's Oct. 27-29 meeting in Bethel says: "Not currently funded. No surveys conducted in 2026."

The door-to-door survey normally starts Sept. 1 in 28 communities, Bethel included. No permits or harvest reports are required on the river, so the project's proposal calls it "the only estimate of the total subsistence salmon harvest" in the area. Its results feed forecasting, inseason management and escapement goals.

Draft 2025 results total 176,808 salmon, up from 131,160 in 2024. Chinook harvest stayed below the 67,200 to 109,800 fish the state says subsistence needs, a range not reached since 2010.

The survey asked the federal Fisheries Resource Monitoring Program for $938,557 over four years, according to the program's 2026 plan. Reviewers called its costs reasonable and its priority clear, and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta council said it "strongly supports" harvest surveys. It did not make the final list of 10 projects.

The plan had anticipated up to $9 million for new projects. It got about $2.5 million from the Interior Department and $2.8 million from the Agriculture Department.

Alida Trainor of the department's Division of Subsistence told the Kuskokwim River Salmon Management Working Group on Aug. 19 that the funding decision was made in the spring and the division had looked for other money without success. A drainage-wide harvest estimate was unlikely, she said, though staff hoped a smaller budget could reach high-harvesting communities later in the fall. Avery Hoffman of the Orutsararmiut Native Council, the survey's Bethel partner, said the loss "hit us hard."

For Chinook, the department's Sept. 15 letter estimates 30,560 harvested this year. It expands an inseason count of 22,757 Chinook from Tuntutuliak to Tuluksak, using a 10-year relationship with past survey results. No record gives a method for chum, sockeye or coho.

A draft letter from all ten federal subsistence regional councils asks that the program be restored to at least fiscal 2025 levels. It was an action item on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta council's agenda. The plan for the next regular funding cycle is set for approval in February 2028.