The federal waters of the lower Kuskokwim River will have another gillnet opening on Saturday, June 16 to target salmon. The regulations will be the same as the previous 6-inch opening. The next gillnet opening in state waters will be Tuesday, June 19.
Nets can be in federal waters on Saturday for 12 hours from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. All drift and set nets are limited to 6-inch or less mesh and cannot exceed 45 meshes in depth. Nets from the Kukokwim River mouth up to the Johnson River cannot exceed 50 fathoms, or 300 feet, in length. Nets upriver of the Johnson to Aniak are required to be shorter and cannot exceed 25 fathoms, or 150 feet, in length. The net length is longer in the lower river because the river widens as it flows downstream.
Federal wildlife officers issued warnings to fishermen who violated these restrictions during the opening on Tuesday, June 12. Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge Manager Ken Stahlnecker cautions that officers won’t be as lenient on Saturday.
“I think on the 16th we’ll be taking some things a little more seriously,” he said.
The main warnings were for nets being too long. Stahlnecker recommends marking the appropriate net length before putting it in the water.
“For those who had a marker, everyone was doing great," Stahlnecker said. "And the majority of folks who had too much net out, they didn’t have a marker. So I think that’s a simple way to make sure that folks are sticking with the right length.”
Other warnings were issued to fishermen for not tagging their set net buoys. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommends marking the owner’s first initial, last name, address, and phone number.
Stahlnecker says that he “feels real good” about holding the opening on Saturday. People caught a lot of kings in the lower Kuskokwim on Tuesday. According to federal and tribal surveys, an estimated 7,170 salmon were taken during the opening along the Kuskokwim main stem from Tuntutuliak upstream to Akiak. Of that 5,120 were kings. Tuntutuliak to Akiak contains the most populated section of the river, and the feds and the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission predict that a similar harvest will occur on Saturday. The co-managers have designated 16,000 king salmon for subsistence harvest this season.
State waters will not be open to gillnets on Saturday. Instead, state waters from Aniak upstream to the Holitna River mouth will have a gillnet opening on Tuesday, June 19. The opening will last 24 hours and net regulations will be the same as in the federal opening. State waters from the Holitna River mouth up to the headwaters are open to 6-inch or less mesh gillnets indefinitely.
Kuskokwim Area Manager for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Aaron Tiernan, says that harvest reports during the most recent opening were low, and that he is scheduling the next opening in state waters later than the feds to allow time for more salmon to swim upriver.
“I’d like to allow a few more fish to get up there, so when we do let a period go, folks have an actual opportunity to harvest some fish,” he excplained.
This schedule is consistent with the state’s pre-season management strategy to offer one subsistence opening per week.
“And that’ll be exactly a week after the last period was offered,” Tiernan pointed out.
In the meantime, Kuskokwim River state waters from Aniak to the Holitna River mouth are open to gillnet fishing under the new king salmon permit system. The permits took effect this week and allow each household to harvest 10 kings through the duration of the season during closures. As of last week, the state had issued about 100 permits.
Both the upcoming federal and state openings are expected to be wet. Rain is forecasted to begin Saturday and last through the following weekend.
