UPPER CHENA RIVER — On this rainy September afternoon, Erik Schoen vacuums water from a backwater slough. The clear flow runs through a plastic tube and into a jar. The liquid will tell him if toothy finned predators swim in this body of water. Earlier this summer, more than 50 juvenile Chinook (king) salmon hovered […]
For millennia, Indigenous people living in Alaska and Canada’s Yukon territory have relied on Chinook salmon. The large, fatty fish provide essential nutrients for Arctic living and have influenced traditions and languages across generations. But over the past three decades, many communities have been unable to fish Chinook amid a sharp salmon population decline. The […]
A warming climate is both harming and helping salmon in northern regions, according to a University of Alaska Fairbanks fisheries researcher. Peter Westley is an associate professor, the Wakefield Chair of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, and principal investigator of the Salmonid Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Lab at UAF. He will discuss the variable role of […]
(Anchorage, AK) – In a significant victory for Alaska’s salmon fishery, U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason has upheld the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) decision to adopt Amendment 16 to the federal salmon fishery plan for the Cook Inlet Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). This ruling confirms that NMFS is not required to regulate salmon fishing within […]