Counts Suggest Another Poor Return Year For Yukon River King Salmon

Yukon River king salmon have been struggling to return to the massive Alaska drainage in recent years, causing year after year of fishing closures. And despite a lower escapement goal for both 2024 and 2025, it’s looking like another subpar year for returning fish.

Here’s more from the Alaska Beacon:

Through Aug. 28, when officials at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game stopped counting, an estimated 23,806 Chinook salmon — informally known as kings — had been counted by workers at the sonar site at Eagle, just west of the Yukon border.

Under international agreements, the United States is supposed to allow a minimum number of fish to travel upriver and into the Yukon to maintain the king salmon run and allow fishing in the territory.

Last year, following years of poor returns, officials in Alaska and Canada agreed to restrict king salmon fishing, including Indigenous subsistence fishing, of king salmon on the river until escapement — the number of king salmon crossing into Canada — exceeds 42,500 fish.

The ultimate goal of the agreement is to rebuild the number of king salmon returning until 71,000 kings reach Canada each summer.