What’s happening with the kings? That’s the question of the season, the question of the last several years, and it’s the question that state managers are asking Kuskokwim subsistence fishermen to help them figure out.
It’s lunch time at the Anvil house.
Three young boys sit at the dinner table, crunching bags of chips.
Carl and Barbara Anvil shoo away their grandsons, and we sit down to take their places. Above us hangs a print of king salmon, freshly caught and ready for processing.
Carl says he caught almost 50 of these fish last year.
"And that was good enough for us. We fish for three families in our fish camp," he said.
Every king Carl caught, he measured its length, slit its belly to see if it was a male or female, and pulled off three scales. The scales have rings that show the fish’s age.
"Ten minutes per fish." That's how long he says the process takes him.
Carl is a subsistence fishermen, and for more than a decade he’s been part of a voluntary program to collect the length, age, and sex of Kuskokwim king salmon. The data goes to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and helps to determine next year’s run forecast as well as track trends in the runs.
“Stick, lick, and pick." That's what Barbara Anvil calls her husband’s sampling.
“I’m usually waiting for him to finish so I can cut the fish,” she said. "I have to wait and keep the fish wet so they won’t dry out, and usually while he’s doing the processing, I’m doing the smaller fish that we don’t have to measure and stuff."
The part of the process that takes the most time is using tweezers to pick off three scales and place them on a sticky card. Their grandkids help write down the information, but Barbara calls her husband's sampling “meticulous."
“I've got to got to check and make sure I got the right scales,” said Carl, laughing.
After a long day of fishing, there’s a long night of processing ahead. The sampling makes a late night even later, but Barbara and Carl agree that the extra time is worth it.
“We feel like we're doing something to help out with the fish,” said Barbara.
Every few days, the Bethel ONC tribe will stop by the Anvil's fish camp and gather the data. Then ONC delivers it to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The Anvil's get $5 for every king sampled.
The data from subsistence fishermen, like the Anvil's, has helped the state determine that Kuskokwim kings are returning smaller and younger. The data helps guide management decisions like the conservation efforts implemented on the Kuskokwim over the last several years.
If you also want to volunteer to sample kings this summer, ONC and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game are holding a training this Friday, June 2, at the Bethel Cultural Center. Show up anytime between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. to get trained and pick up a sampling kit. There’s no commitment for showing up.
