The Chilkat River king salmon numbers are so low that without a serious conservation effort they could be at a tipping point toward extinction.
Three quarters of the recent historical average of returns to the river no longer exist. All the other rivers in Southeast Alaska are at historical lows also.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game plan is not good enough. Closing only inside waters and “non-retention” will not protect the spawners. Studies show that 28 percent of sport-caught kings do not survive after release.
I am asking ADFG to close all of Southeast to salmon fishing till June 15 so that the spawners can navigate the ocean gauntlet free from human interference.
If anyone has a claim to harvest any of these fish, it would be the Tlingit of the Chilkat Valley; not some charter boat in Althorp or Lisianski.
If we take serious measures now, and with solid management we might be able to reverse this decline as we did in the 1980s (despite a huge increase in marine mammals and a whole new commercial charter sector). If not, we are spiraling into endangered species territory (Chilkat kings are genetically distinct) and we don’t want to be there!
Scott Visscher,
Haines