by Orutsararmiut Native Council Staff
ONC Fisheries staff conducted another successful year of harvest surveys and Chinook salmon biological sampling as a part of our Inseason Harvest Monitoring Project! This project, in partnership with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, has been in place since 2001. It has significantly grown and improved over time and has provided valuable data for Kuskokwim River fisheries management.
This summer, ONC Fisheries had a team of all local native college students that conducted harvest surveys at the boat harbor and Bethel area fish camps. We asked fishers about their salmon catch, their harvest goals, and what information they want to share with in season managers.
Our staff conducted about 170 surveys at fish camps and over 650 surveys at the Boat Harbor with the help of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. For the first time this summer, ONC and KRITFC were able to produce in season harvest estimates. Data collected from these surveys was able to provide reliable in-season quantitative estimates of salmon harvests. Surveys also incorporated input from local fishers into the fisheries management processes.
Our staff was able to provide weekly updates at the Kuskokwim River Salmon Management Working Group meetings and share the data with KRITFC and Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge throughout the summer.
ONC also collected Chinook salmon age-sex-length (ASL) data in collaboration with ADF&G. ONC recruited 14 local fishers in Bethel to record the length and sex and collect three scales from their Chinook salmon harvest. Those that participated received $5 per Chinook salmon sampled. A total of approximately $3,500 was paid to samplers this summer!
ONC is grateful for local participation and encourages community members to become involved and learn more about the Chinook salmon population here on the Kuskokwim River.
In addition, Chinook salmon otoliths were dissected again this summer in collaboration with the University of Washington and ADF&G. By analyzing salmon ear stones — called the otolith — scientists can learn more about where salmon are born and which Kuskokwim tributaries salmon spend time in each year!
Lastly, ONC delivered 379 Chinook, 29 chum, 163 red salmon and 12 non salmon species to Bethel and Tuluksak elders, widows, and disabled. These fish were caught by the ADF&G Bethel Test Fishery. If you are an Elder, disabled, or widowed in Bethel or know someone who is, please contact ONC Fisheries at 545-6001 to be added to the fish distribution list for summer 2022.
We’d like to thank ADF&G, USFWS, KRITFC, and the community of Bethel for their support of the continuation of this project.
Now that we are at the end of the summer season, ONC Fisheries is getting ready for our next project: Postseason Subsistence Harvest Survey Project. The community of Bethel will see our technicians out surveying households this coming October to get information about their total harvest this summer. We appreciate the community’s participation with these surveys. See you out there!
