A buoy at a Set-Net site in Ninilchik in June. (Sabine Poux/KDLL)
Fishing for kings on the Kenai River is banned again this month. It is the third consecutive year that the Alaska Department of Fish and Wildlife has closed the fishery early due to low chinook salmon numbers.
The closure also means set netters fishing the east side of Cook Inlet will not be allowed to fish this season. Your fishery closes when the number of kings is down.
The poor king run may not surprise most. Chinook salmon have been in decline in Alaska for more than a decade.
Still – it’s worrying for fishermen and guides who now have to change their plans in the face of a shortened season.
“While we need to conserve these fish, I only hope – and still have hope – that one day these fish will come back,” said Ray DeBardelaben, president of the Kenai River Professional Guide Association and owner of the aptly named tour guide company. Long live the kings.
He said customers came back to his shop year after year to try and catch the Kenai River’s trophy fish.
But chinook salmon have problems on the Kenai — and in Alaska. Biologists say they don’t really know why.
It’s not just the runs in south-central Alaska, either. Fish and Game said Tuesday this year’s King Run on the Yukon River could be the lowest ever observed.
Fish and Game said it wants the defunct Kenai king run to drop between 15,000 and 30,000 big king salmon. This is his optimal escapement target for the July run.
But the department estimates that under current conditions, just 11,500 kings would slip under the radar by the end of the month. As of Monday, 3,419 kings had passed sonar at mile 13.7 of the Kenai River.
With kingfishing restrictions this month and last, DeBardelaben said he is telling guides to focus on other species of fish – and bringing in clients to catch sockeye, halibut and trout.
He said his regular customers generally understand this new reality.
“When people call to book trips with me, I just tell them we’re going fishing,” he said. “For what, I don’t know. But we’re going to get in my boat, we’re going to have some fun, we’re going to catch some fish — and maybe not catch any fish. It’s just the new way of life as the Kenai River Guide and the Kasilof River.”
Fish and Game is also closing the Kasilof River Chinook salmon fishery.
The Kasilof Königslauf is unguarded. But Colton Lipka of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said due to the low number of kingfish in Cook Inlet, it’s likely the run would have trouble too. And he said the restriction is so anglers don’t flock there to fish kings when the Kenai is closed for kingfishing.
DeBardelaben said the changes are hard on guides, especially new ones.
“The guide numbers will definitely go down this year,” he said.
Not all groups are able to turn if their fishing is limited.
The gillnet fishery on the east side is closed meaning gillnet fishermen from Ninilchik to Boulder Point on the northern Kenai Peninsula will no longer have openers unless the chinook salmon stock improves.
This is the fourth consecutive year they have been closed due to Low King Salmon inhibitions.
Set-Netter Brent Johnson of Clam Gulch said he was concerned there would be a closure this summer. But he said this year came even earlier than most.
“Two years ago, [July] 28 was our last fishing day,” he said. “Last year the 23rd was our last fishing day. So is that earlier? Oh my god yes.”
The mating restrictions on set netters are designed to curb accidental catches of chinook salmon. The Alaska Board of Fisheries said set netters were more likely to catch kings than the drift fleet.
But set netters say they were able to get creative to avoid catching kings. According to Fish and Game, they have caught about 32 large chinook salmon so far this month. That’s a small fraction of the total king run.
“Every type of user you can think of is harvesting at a fast rate, and we are closing early for the fourth straight year,” said Ken Coleman, vice president of the Kenai Peninsula Fishermen’s Association. “And it’s devastating.”
He also said the closures were somewhat expected.
This spring, in anticipation of these closures, the Board of Fish considered an unscheduled proposal that would have opened a limited gillnet fishery that year.
However, this proposal met with significant opposition from sportfishing advocates and was narrowly defeated by the board.
“For the future, we would like to find a way to make such a situation work. So if we’re in that bright red area where we’re completely shut down and facing another disaster season, there would be an opportunity to get a limited harvest,” Coleman said.
Coleman said set netters, most of whom are from the central Kenai Peninsula, were injured. And he also said he’s worried about sockeye salmon overflowing the Kenai and Kasilof rivers if the set netters aren’t allowed to fish.
“We still have some time until the next board [of Fish] Meeting — 2024 is the next meeting,” he said. “It’s a long road and there could be more pain between then and now. Of course I hope not.”
Johnson said his site grossed about $56,000 that season. That’s the same as 2012, which he called another “doomsday year.”
“So that’s going to tie the record for the worst of all time — except of course with inflation, $56,000 in 2022 is worse than it was in 2012,” he said.
He said he has his crew working on cabin maintenance at the Set-Net site during the final weeks of the season to ensure they have some work to do.
Comments are closed.