Kenai Alaska Resort & Fishing Guide

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I’m often asked, “what’s going on with the king salmon runs?”

My response has been, “death by a thousand cuts”. 

I’ll follow this statement with a list of factors that include:

  • too many kings caught by sport fisherman
  • habitat and spawning degradation in natal streams and creeks
  • too many kings caught by setnetters in Upper Cook Inlet
  • an increase in the orca population which feed on king salmon 
  • changing ocean conditions affecting marine survival
  • billions of pink salmon fry dumped in the ocean by the US and Russia outcompeting wild stocks
  • trawler bycatch

I’m sure there are other reasons for the demise of the king salmon fishery, but it’s my opinion the smoking gun is and has been the bycatch of the trawler industry in the Bering Sea. The rest of us have been fighting over the scraps for years. 

Bering Sea trawling, which drags nets up to 600 feet in length targeting cod/pollock, is a multi billion dollar industry. If you’re not familiar with their end product, all you have to do is go to any fast food restaurant and order a fish sandwich. The odds of that fish coming from the Bering Sea is extremely high (Culver’s is one of the exceptions that I’m aware of that serves Atlantic cod).

I have no issues with cod/pollock per se. It’s how they are harvested that I have a problem with. Instead of long lining, or using pots, individual nets as long as two football fields are deployed by each boat in the fleet. It’s efficient to use enormous nets for the targeted species. But, a lot of non targeted, bycatch gets swept up in the “curtains of death.”

Juvenile king salmon are part of the non targeted species.

If you’d like to take a deep dive into the topic, Politico recently ran an article about the trawler industry. It can be found here.

Is this David vs. Goliath? You betcha.

Here in Upper Cook Inlet, all fishing user groups are either closed down, or heavily restricted. Guess who isn’t? The trawlers. Hmmm, imagine that.

One of the issues that then candidate for Congress Mary Peltola ran on was she wanted to get to the bottom of a collapsing salmon fishery in Alaska. My hope is she acts in the best interest of the fish and addresses the elephant in the room.

 

* photo credit Nat Herz/Alaska Public Media