The latest reports from test fisheries are showing some king salmon moving as far up the Kuskokwim as the mouth of the Aniak river, but the numbers are still looking a bit low compared to last year. Aaron Tiernan, a biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, said it’s still early in the run, though.
“Things can turn quickly. We’re just going to continue to look at the test fishery data,” said Tiernan.
They’ve also been using sonar data to get a better count estimate on the number of fish moving upriver.
“There is two different units on each side of the bank, and they sonify, and they shoot sonar beams out into the river, and then every time fish move through that,” said Tiernan, “we can see that because it’s breaking through the beam.”
By counting the number of fish swimming through the sonar units, and by looking at what kinds of fish were caught in different places, they’re able to get a better indication of the number and type of fish moving upstream.
“Through what’s caught in all those meshes, we can give a daily estimate on the number of each species of fish that pass through that site,” said Tiernan.
The ADF&G working group will meet again this Saturday to discuss the next couple of days' worth of numbers collected from sonar and test fisheries, and to discuss a possible six-inch mesh opening upriver some time later this month.