Kenai Alaska Resort & Fishing Guide

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King salmon runs in Alaska have been on an undeniable downward trend for years now. Whether the species is on the road to extinction, or on a path to a new lower mean level, know one really knows for sure.

Finding a solution to reverse the trend is not easy. Nature is complicated, and man managing nature can really mess things up. Especially when politics and the dynamics between federal and state agencies are involved.

The most iconic river in all of Alaska, the Kenai, has not met escapement goals for king salmon in four consecutive years. That has earned the Kenai kings the designation of  “stock of yield concern”. What this means is the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) is required to come up with an alternative plan to maintain yields, and harvestable surplus above the stock’s escapement needs. 

Not everyone wants to wait for the State to come up with a new management plan.

Cue the Feds…

Wild Fish Conservancy, a non profit group from Duvall, Washington, has petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to list Alaska king salmon as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Protecting declining Alaska king salmon runs aligns with their mission statement to restore wild fish habitat, reform fisheries, and transition away from fish hatcheries.  

The ESA criteria for a threatened species designation are: 

  • the present or threatened destruction of habitat
  • overutilization of the species for commercial, recreational or other purposes
  • disease or predation
  • inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms, and
  • other natural or manmade factors affecting the continued existence of the species.

I applaud the Wild Fish Conservancy for taking the initiative to do something. However, the likelihood of their petition being adopted is very low. Instead of an overly ambitious inclusion of all king salmon runs in Alaska as threatened (there is a lack of a clear and consistent downward trend in all runs), specific and distinct king salmon populations should have been designated.

Time will tell if their efforts bear fruit.

Come back next week for Part 2 of Doing Something. This time the focus will be on the state level management of king salmon and a very interesting, comprehensive Board of Fisheries proposal submitted by Dr. Francis “The Keen Eye Physician” Estalilla.