River Watchers will go inside the science of managing the fisheries in three of the Northern Pacific’s best known salmon rivers: the Yukon, Kenai, and Columbia, each with their own political, environmental, and human challenges, and for which salmon is the most viable species of fishery management.
Because of the life cycle of the wild salmon — they spawn in freshwater, head out to sea, then return to the same river, stream or lake where their lives began — monitoring the salmon stocks as they return each summer represents a unique opportunity to measure the health of the species. Waiting at the mouths of these rivers are the commercial salmon fleets that harvest one of our most prized culinary food fish. North Americans have enjoyed and relied upon salmon as a food item for thousands of years longer than they have cattle, and salmon have proven to be a hearty stock. State agencies charged with managing these fisheries have done a good job of balancing the interests of the user groups with the survival of the species.
But vexing questions arise when one species of salmon declines despite management efforts, especially while others thrive. Whereas Cohos, Sockeyes, and Keta have been maintaining a powerful life cycle, the mightiest of wild salmon species, the King, has been in decline.
Managers of the Yukon River fishery must balance the needs of our nation’s last hunter-gatherers with those of user groups upstream. They must insure we fulfill the obligations of an international treaty while trying to keep an eye on the fish as they return through one of our largest and most complex river delta systems: the Yukon River has three mouths and covers a landmass the size of New York State.
On the Kenai River, ADFG has to manage a diverse array of user groups, with all of these interests confined to one of the shortest salmon rivers in Alaska, only 82 miles. So by comparison what may seem like an easier prospect than managing the mighty Yukon, the challenges are compounded by politics and the changing environment.
The Columbia River is struggling with a legacy of hydroelectric dams, pollution, and rising water temperatures. Scientists who manage the river are hopeful that the tide could be shifting back to favor a recovery by several wild species.
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