Fisheries research, monitoring, and conservation
CBC News
September 2, 2012
Salmon numbers in the Yukon River are picking up as the summer draws to an end.
After a disastrous chinook salmon run, the chum salmon seem to be coming back strong.
Steve Smith, the area resource manager with the federal Fisheries and Oceans Department in Whitehorse, said that means commercial fishermen are being allowed to put their nets in the river. “We currently have a total allowable catch of somewhere around 30 thousand chum salmon our average harvest over the past 10 years has been less than 10 thousand,” Smith said.
“So based on that we anticipate that we’ll have significant commercial fishing opportunities this year,” he said.
Smith said there are less than two dozen commercial fishing licences still active in the Yukon. He said last year there was some interest in Yukon River chums from commercial fish buyers in the south, but that interest didn’t translate into actual sales.
Smith expects this year’s harvest will likely be sold within the local market.
The current commercial fishing opening goes until Tuesday at noon. Further openings will depend on the health of the run and fish counts.
Meantime, the last fish of the spawning season will likely go through the fish ladder in Whitehorse this weekend.
The ladder at the Whitehorse Dam, allows salmon to pass the hydro-electric plant to reach their spawning ground. The number of fish that pass through the ladder is an indication of the health of the salmon run.
Lawrence Vano, the manager of the hatchery program at the fish ladder, said just over nine hundred fish have gone through so far this season.
He said because the salmon run is about a week late this year, it’s affected some fish.
“If there is something that I have noticed, the fish look very tired, they’re not as robust because I think they were held up somewhere in the system,” Vano said.
He expects by the time the last fish heads up the ladder, eleven hundred salmon will have passed through to the spawning ground this season. He considers that to be a good year.
