Fall chum and coho harvest is closed across the Tanana drainage until Dec. 31

Harvest of fall chum and coho salmon has been closed across the Tanana drainage for sport, subsistence and personal use fishers since 12:01 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 15, running until 8 a.m. Dec. 31 unless a later order changes it. It covers two species, not all fishing.

Holly Carroll, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Yukon River inseason fisheries manager, issued Temporary Special Action 03-FC-06-26 on Aug. 11, closing harvest in federal public waters of District 6. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game issued Emergency Order 3-S-FY-04-26 the same day, closing subsistence and personal use harvest in state waters. The Board of Fisheries designated fall chum a Stock of Management Concern this year and moved the fall season three days earlier than normal.

Pilot Station sonar had counted 413,126 fall chum as of Aug. 10, against a median of 294,000, and genetic sampling from July 18 to Aug. 2 found 25 percent were Tanana fall stock. The department calls it precautionary: it says the season is too early to judge the strength of the Tanana-bound run, and projects a below-average coho return.