Friday May 15, 2026
KMXT —
At the turn of the century, the Karluk River, which runs by the village of Karluk, was booming with king salmon—also called Chinook. And people traveled from all over the world to catch them.
“A lot of folks still remember the, they call it the mighty Karluk river,” said Tyler Polum, a Kodiak area sportfish biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. “In the early 2000s, it was so popular that there was a limited use during the king salmon season. You had to get a permit to go down there.”
The population has since tanked, and catch and keep sportfishing for kings has been closed on the river since 2007. Subsistence fishing for kings was banned the year after.
But the Karluk’s status might soon change. A project that will use Kodiak hatcheries to rehabilitate the Karluk river Chinook salmon run has officially gotten a greenlight after almost ten years of planning. It will be the first project of its kind in the state.
Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang sent an official approval letter to the Kodiak Regional Aquaculture Association (KRAA), which operates both Kodiak hatcheries, on May 1.