Subsistence salmon fishing reopens on the Tanana and Yukon after closures

Subsistence fishing for salmon is reopening across the Tanana and Yukon rivers after a summer of closures, now that the runs have come back strong enough to allow it.

Federally qualified subsistence users can again fish for salmon around the clock in federal waters of the Tanana River drainage, through the end of the year, after managers lifted a series of closures — on fall chum and coho since mid-August, and on Chinook since June. A parallel action reopens the lower Yukon on a staggered schedule starting this week. Gillnets are limited to smaller mesh, but otherwise the usual subsistence gear is allowed.

The openings follow an unusually strong return on a river system that has struggled for years. Managers said the fall chum run came in strong — the state projected it above 900,000 fish, well past the upper end of its escapement goal — and that coho, while weaker than average, recovered enough to support subsistence harvest. The Chinook run, they said, is essentially complete for the year.

The relief comes against a hard longer record. Yukon king salmon have been so depleted that their escapement goals went unmet every year from 2020 through 2024, and the state has recommended formally designating both Yukon fall chum and Chinook as stocks of management concern. For the Yukon River communities that depend on the salmon, this fall's openings ease a long shortage without ending it.