...our wonderful fish and game released the migration routes of the King, GPS, and times of the year. The Taiwan pirates showed up with open Ocean drift netters with 19 mile long nets. ....
Its a wonder a fish can make it to the rivers. I know the fishermen have to make a living, but that's crazy. I wonder if my kids will ever be able to see a big 80+# Kenai ghost in their lifetime.
Commercial fishermen pick up the tab for just about anyone who catches a salmon in Alaska that started its life in a hatchery.
That was a finding that wended its way to the surface during a hearing last week of the House Fisheries Committee on the state’s hatchery program. The program began in the mid-1970s to enhance Alaska’s wild salmon runs.Unlike meetings that are top-heavy with fishery stakeholders, most of the committee members are not deeply familiar with many industry inner workings and their interest was evident.“Who funds the hatchery programs?” asked Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, D-Sitka, referring to the 25 private, nonprofit associations that operate in Prince William Sound, Southeast Alaska, Kodiak and Cook Inlet.
Turns out, it’s commercial fishermen.
“In each region where there is an aquaculture association, commercial salmon permit holders have levied a salmon enhancement tax upon themselves from 1 to 3 percent,” said Tina Fairbanks, executive director of Kodiak Regional Aquaculture Association.
Fishermen also catch and sell returning adult salmon to the hatchery, which operators use to pay operating expenses, a process called cost recovery. In 2017 cost recovery fish, which fetch a lower price for fishermen than selling to processors, accounted for 79 percent of hatchery income.
There have been discussions about sport charter operators contributing, but it’s not really needed, said Steve Reifenstuhl, executive director of the Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association. “Because of the mechanism we have for doing cost recovery, there is not really a need to bring in additional money.”
“That’s very refreshing to hear right now that you have adequate revenue. That is not something we hear very often,” said Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer. “So thank you to all the fishermen who contribute and make it sustainable.”
“The hatchery programs truly represent one of the most successful public/private partnerships in the state’s history,” Fairbanks said. “These facilities produce salmon for sport, subsistence, personal use and commercial fisheries at no cost to the state of Alaska. The revenues generated through commercial landings and fish taxes go back into the communities and state coffers and represent a great return on the state’s initial investment.”
“It’s very uncommon,” said Dan Lesh, an economist with the McDowell Group. “It is quite impressive that it produces such large economic benefits with no cost to the state.”
Hatcheries have nothing to do with Kings.......or do they? The Alaska hatcheries have been successful in flooding their local streams with pink and chum salmon, for the most part. Sockeye hatcheries failed miserably due to piss poor planning and the prevalence of IHNV. As George noted, all those hatcheries were built by ADFG with Alaskans money.
So, you’ve got hatcheries literally flooding streams with pink and chum. And those fish, like kings, go to sea to mature before returning. All those “extra” fish have to eat something when they’re in the ocean. Are they competing with kings for limited food resources? Who knows, but it’s a sure bet all those hatcheries aren’t helping king populations.
Many years ago, I served on submarines. Off Asian waters, we often had to back out of our op areas and surface to remove all the fish nets, complete with glass floats, that were banging against the hull. Those nets were all monofilimint (outlawed in US waters, the mesh was salmon web, and the nets were generally 10,000 meters long. The upside of this whole CF was sometimes we got to pick a few salmon out of the nets, as we cut them off the boat.
There are LOTS of different pressures on those poor salmon. Frankly, I’m amazed any of them make it upstream to spawn.
MTV
Yes, one king hatchery.....my point was simply that there are a number of other hatcheries pumping out “less desirable” species of salmon, which may be competing for limited food resources. Or not.
MTV
There's lots of theories...some are linked to freshwater origin and others subsequent ocean area used. Ocean area used exposes stocks to differing rates of natural mortality like from poor feed sources, predation from whatever, and fishing mortality incurred during other targeted fisheries or bycatch. This is just a quick search summary. If the adequate young smolts go to sea in healthy condition and return in good shape (?) but fewer than expected then in between there's some thing(s) causing excessive mortality. The goal current research is to find out what, where, and how to fix it.
https://www.kcaw.org/2018/05/29/changing-ocean-conditions-may-be-killing-young-king-salmon/
https://www.kdll.org/post/tagging-study-gives-glimpse-ocean-life-king-salmon#stream/0
http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_documents.asp?session=28&docid=14913
https://www.npfmc.org/wp-content/PDFdocuments/bycatch/Bycatchflyer913.pdf
Gary
Yes. Time and money will be committed. Even then there's no guarantee managers can control overall King Salmon mortality.
Edit: A recent example of some analysis: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/faf.12272
Gary