Subsistence Board To Determine Management Yukon River Salmon Strategies

Here’s KYUK radio on whether or not if the Yukon River’s salmon fishery will have federal management regulations based on a Federal Subsistence Board meeting held this week after tribal interests requested federal intervention:

The Holy Cross Tribe and the Native Village of Eagle, along with two Yukon River residents, requested federal management. They are asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to manage Yukon River Chinook, and summer and fall chum salmon between June 1 and Sept. 30. They are also asking that subsistence salmon fishing during this time be limited to federally qualified subsistence users who live along the river.

Here’s more on the Federal Subsistence Board’s agenda regarding the Yukon and the request to have federal intervention:

Proponents are asking the Board to uphold the conservation and priority consumptive uses provisions under Titles III and VIII of ANILCA by assuming management of Yukon River drainage Chinook and summer and fall Chum Salmon throughout the 2022 season. In the requests, the proponents write:

Significant changes have occurred since the Board last considered Yukon River drainage salmon special action requests in 2015. Yukon Chinook and Chum Salmon populations have suffered catastrophic declines in abundance in recent years, culminating in the 2021 season providing no harvest opportunities and creating significant food security concerns among Yukon River tribes and residents. The current Yukon River salmon management system—wherein the State manages the Chinook and Chum Salmon fisheries with passive consent but no direct intervention by the Federal in-season managers for over a decade—is not working and has repeatedly failed to uphold the provisions of ANILCA. Over the past decade, this pattern of passive and ineffective Federal oversight of State management has allowed: (1) other uses, including commercial fishing, to have priority over subsistence harvest by Federally qualified subsistence users, including during years when our long-term average customary harvest amounts of Chinook Salmon were not achieved; (2) escapement goals necessary for conservation and rebuilding our declined Chinook Salmon run have not been met in a number of years, including a failure to meet escapement goals to Canada in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2019, 2020 and 2021; and (3) inequity of harvest, wherein some portions of the Yukon River drainage were open for Chinook Salmon harvest while other portions were arbitrarily closed to harvest.

Proponents finish by stating:

Federal management is necessary to ensure the healthy conservation of Chinook and Chum Salmon stocks as required by ANILCA in order to support future subsistence harvests. Without Federal management, when a sustainable harvest of Chinook and Chum Salmon is available in the future, Federally qualified users will not be ensured the priority and opportunity for customary and traditional uses of the Yukon Chinook and

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Chum Salmon that is required by Title VIII of ANILCA. Our customary and traditional subsistence uses will be compromised by other regulatory regimes that do not prioritize subsistence uses.

Existing Federal Regulation
50 CFR 100.27(e)(3) Subsistence taking of fish—Yukon-Northern Area

(ii) For the Yukon River drainage, Federal subsistence fishing schedules, openings, closings, and fishing methods are the same as those issued for the subsistence taking of fish under Alaska Statutes (AS 16.05.060 [Emergency Orders]), unless superseded by a Federal Special Action.

Proposed Federal Regulation
50 CFR 100.27(e)(3) Subsistence taking of fish—Yukon-Northern Area

(ii) For the Yukon River drainage, Federal subsistence fishing schedules, openings, closings, and fishing methods are the same as those issued for the subsistence taking of fish under Alaska Statutes (AS 16.05.060 [Emergency Orders]), unless superseded by a Federal Special Action.

Federal public waters of the Yukon River drainage are closed to the harvest of Chinook and summer and fall Chum Salmon except by Federally qualified subsistence users identified in the Section 804 analysis, effective on June 1, 2022, through September 30, 2022. Federal subsistence fishing schedules, openings, closures, and fishing methods will be determined by the Federal Fisheries Manager.