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ANCHORAGE - One of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough's most popular streams will be closed to king salmon fishing because of poor returns.

Starting Saturday, the Deshka River, about 35 miles northwest of Anchorage, is off limits to king salmon fishing because of poor returns. Other southcentral Alaska rivers also are seeing low returns.

As of Wednesday, only 865 kings had been counted at a weir at Mile 7 of the stream. That's a fraction of the normal average of about 5,400 kings for this time of year.

Last year, the state closed the fishery on June 20.

Even with the ban in place, the state projects only about 5,600 kings will reach the spawning grounds, far fewer than the minimum escapement goal of 13,000 that biologists would like to see to ensure healthy future returns.

"Yeah, there's no fish, just like they say," said longtime Mat-Su fishing guide Dan Lewis, who has had 45 charter trips canceled this summer. "I'm glad it's closed down."

Joe Wright, president of the Deshka Landing Outdoor Association, said about 125 boats use the landing on a good weekend day. Traffic is down two-thirds, he said.

"We're concerned but our concern is for the fishery itself," he said. "What are you going to do?"

Poor returns have been reported at other rivers.

Through Wednesday, only 708 kings had returned to the Anchor River on the Kenai Peninsula stream. Two years ago it saw more than 9,500 kings come back. It is closed to king salmon fishing.

On Kodiak Island, the Ayakulik River, which saw more than 6,000 kings spawn two years ago, has just 370 fish upriver. The state Thursday banned anglers from keeping kings.

Only 192 kings have passed the weir in the Karluk River, which saw nearly 2,000 fish two years ago. Sportfishing will close there Monday.

Copper River dipnetters cannot keep king salmon because the run is weak.

The Kenai River's early king run is lagging 21 percent behind last year, which saw 5,006 fish past the in-river sonar. As recently as 2005, some 8,300 kings had been counted by this time of the year.

The cause of the poor runs has not been confirmed.

Some blame bycatch of commercial fisheries. Others say the cause is warming ocean water or river problems that kill smolt before they reach the sea.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council this year capped the bycatch of the Bering Sea pollock industry at 60,000 king salmon, though Department of Fish and Game biologist Dave Rutz believes few of those fish are bound for Cook Inlet.

"It's real tough to say what's the cause - it can be with freshwater survival combined with marine survival problems," Rutz said. "We've seen it before in the early 1990s and latter part of the '70s. There are always troughs and peaks."