Yukon coho are running well below average as the peak window opens

Coho returning to the Yukon River are running far below historic levels just as the season's peak arrival window opens, according to state fisheries data.

The Lower Yukon Test Fishery's cumulative catch per unit effort for coho stood at 5.13 on Sunday, against a historic figure of 118.80 for that date. Cumulative coho passage at the Pilot Station sonar was about 13,244, against a historic 36,000.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game released the figures Tuesday in Fall Update #5, from area management biologist Matt Olson and research biologist Bonnie Borba. "It is still early in the coho salmon run, but current passage estimates are well below average and the run timing appears later than average," the department said. A week earlier it said it was too early to assess coho.

Coho typically enter in mid-August, with the bulk passing the lower river test fishery between August 16 and 27. The parent year, 2022, produced an escapement index of 100,000 fish, and the department expects this year's run well below the average of 212,000.

Fall chum are running the other direction: passage at Pilot Station reached about 445,788 on Sunday, above the median of 386,000 and near the upper end of the drainagewide escapement goal of 300,000 to 600,000 fish. Genetic sampling from August 3 through 10 found 55 percent Border US stocks, 36 percent Tanana fall and 9 percent Canada, or 91 percent U.S.-origin overall. The department says the Border US and Tanana components are above average while the Canadian stock is below average.

Treaty escapement goals call for 70,000 to 104,000 fall chum in the mainstem Yukon and 22,000 to 49,000 in the Fishing Branch River. ADF&G says passage would likely have to exceed the upper end of the entire drainagewide goal to reach the lower end of the Canadian treaty obligation, which is why a strong overall run still isn't enough to open fishing.

"Directed subsistence fishing for fall chum salmon in the mainstem Yukon River is highly unlikely this season in order to protect the Canadian stocks migrating the spawning grounds," the department said. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued matching special actions in waters adjacent to federal land, where subsistence salmon fishing is limited to federally qualified users of the Yukon drainage. Holly Carroll is the federal in-season manager.

Subsistence fishing for Chinook, chum and coho is closed from the Coastal District through District 6, across more than thirty communities, with required live release; limited nonsalmon gillnetting and two upriver full-retention exceptions remain in place. Personal use salmon fishing in Subdistrict 6-C is closed until further notice, as is Fairbanks personal-use whitefish and sucker fishing with manned fishwheels.

This account rests on the department's updates, in which no fisherman, tribal government or fishery commission is quoted.

Chinook passage at the Eagle sonar reached an estimated 34,289 fish as of Monday, below the historical average of 46,959 and short of the border passage objective, but larger than anything observed since 2020. Upper river chum projects have barely begun: the Teedriinjik sonar, started August 14, had counted 276 fall chum by Sunday, and the Sheenjek 406, below its median of 965. The Fishing Branch weir in Canada will not begin counting until late August or early September.