The Kuskokwim River has entered is fifth year of fishing restrictions because of low king salmon returns, and many people along the river are urging their fellow residents to support each other during this changing time when everyone is under difficult constraints.
During king salmon season, the Kuskokwim River Salmon Management Working Group meets every week. The Working Group has no regulatory power. Its members represent sections of the entire span of the river, and together they advise the river’s tribal, federal, and state managers. Every Working Group meeting begins the same way: with a prayer.
Ray Collins, in the McGrath headwaters, led this Thursday's invocation. In it, he summarized the purpose of the five years of conservation: “Help us to make decisions that will both meet the needs of people now and also leave a good inheritance for those who come after us.”
The Working Group meetings are open to everyone. People attend in person and by teleconference, and you can hear frustration in the comments during every meeting.
“There’s getting too many rules,” Lena Surgy in Lower Kalskag told the managers during this past meeting.
“You’ve got to think of what you’re doing to our people and not balance the conservation on the backs of us," said Herman Morgan of Aniak.
People aren’t happy about the restrictions. They change the way people have lived along the river, the way they fish, and the way they feed their families. But at Thursday's meeting there were other voices encouraging everybody to try to work together cooperatively to find a way forward in times of declining abundance.
“There isn’t one individual who has the power to completely close the river or completely open the river," explained Mary Peltola, Executive Director of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. "This is really a lot of people working to figure this out.”
Peltola pointed out that on the Kuskokwim’s most recent gillnet opening on June 12, a high catch of kings was 20 fish for a full day of drifting. But most fishermen were getting maybe five kings. Others got none. Decades ago, fishermen could catch dozens in a single drift.
“So that clearly says we don’t have the run that we wish we had," Peltola said. "It’s not like old times. The river really does seem to be pretty empty.”
The Kuskokwim isn’t the only river with low king returns.
“It’s across the state," explained Chuck Brazil, a biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. "If you look all the way from Southeast to Southcentral, there are several systems that are shut down or restricted heavily to king salmon fishing.”
Bethel resident Beverly Hoffman reminded everyone that the Kuskokwim river is still rich with fish.
“We’re thinking of future generations, and we’re blessed with other species of salmon, not just for our smokehouse, but for our freezers and jars,” said Hoffman. For herself, she says that she will wait to begin fishing until these other salmon species fill the river.
Alissa Rogers is the co-chair of the Kuskokwim River Salmon Management Working Group. Since restrictions began, she says, her family has delayed fishing until August to avoid the kings and target silver salmon instead. Rogers closed the meeting with this comment: “Continue to respect and love one another on the river and in person. We all are suffering hard times."
And with that, the meeting adjourned.
