Sockeye, commercial season, remain slow

Steve Fossman repairs a net. (File photo/Chilkat Valley News)

By Will Steinfeld

Chilkat Valley News

Sockeye counts in the Upper Lynn Canal are down, and the run is yet to arrive in full force. As the weeks tick by and numbers stay low, some fishermen are worried the full run might not materialize at all. 

Efforts to count the annual run are generally separated into two components. The first is the harvest — how many fish are caught as they travel up the Lynn Canal towards spawning streams. The second is the escapement — how many fish make it past fishermen and into streams to reproduce. 

This year, both harvest and escapement have been below the norm. While escapement numbers at the Chilkat River weir are within the state’s target range, escapement at the Chilkoot River weir is just over half of the 10-year average for this time of year. That number of fish arriving to reproduce is tracking along the bottom end of what the state’s biologists say is needed to keep the population sustainable. 

Meanwhile, when looking at the five-year average catch data, the Lynn Canal’s gillnet fleet has caught roughly one-third of what it normally catches by this time of year.  Fisherman Steve Fossman said that indicates the run really hasn’t arrived, as opposed to overfishing by the local commercial fleet lowering escapement counts at spawning streams. 

Members of the fleet say the story told by the numbers is, by and large, what they’re seeing on the water. And they’re beginning to worry. 

Gillnetter Joel Pasquan said last week that everyone he’s talked to recently has been coming up empty on sockeye, except for what he calls “junk fish” — sockeye that look dark and soft. That tells him they’ve been in the area for some time, and are not part of a bigger wave migrating up the canal from the south. 

“Right now we should be getting a fair wave of fresh fish,” Pasquan said. “This week if it’s a bunch of dark fish, that means they took a chunk out of it in the past,” he added, speculating that other fisheries further south may have intercepted the mass of sockeye. 

From the biologists at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s perspective, some indicators before the season pointed to a below-average sockeye run. This spring, the department predicted an “average to below average” Chilkoot sockeye run, based on low food availability in the lake in 2021, when many of this year’s spawning fish were reared.  If the current trend holds, however, and the count remains below the bottom of the escapement target, that would be more drastic than was forecasted. 

It’s not just the sockeye run, either. As of August 8, Fish and Game had the catch of pinks in the Lynn Canal also recorded at just a fraction of 10-year averages. The only salmon species being caught at above-average numbers were chum salmon.

Not everyone looks at the current data the same way. While Pasquan is catching commercially, some sport fishermen are still optimistic. Longtime fishing guide Gabe Long said the sockeye were similarly absent last year, too, before all coming in one big burst. Early season restrictions were lifted, and the sockeye count at the Chilkoot weir ended within the target escapement range. 

“With the cooler temperatures coming up this weekend, we should see a big boost in the number of fish coming in,” Long said. 

But as Long acknowledged, there’s no certainty of what the coming weeks will hold. And back at the boat harbor, gillnetter Steve Fossman questioned the concept of a “slow” run. 

“Usually when it’s late at a point like this, it’s not good,” Fossman said. “Sometimes it means you’re grasping for some hope that it’ll show up.” 

• This article originally appeared in the Chilkat Valley News.