Every year, Chinook salmon, better known as king salmon, swim from the Bering Sea to the Yukon River in Alaska.
The journey to the spawning grounds is 3,000 km.
Freder the salmon king
This year he was absent. Fish is an important food in Alaska, especially for native people who live far from cities.
– It’s important to keep this culture alive so young people can continue fishing in the future, and king salmon has been an important part of our diet for years, says Michele Telep of the Ta’an First Nation in APTN.
She therefore proposes to completely protect the Yukon king salmon, until the population gets back on its feet. The ban came into effect this year.
This is the first time local natives aren’t practicing their traditional net fishing for Pacific salmon, and they’re on board with conservation.
Overfishing – probable cause
The decline of the Yukon River king salmon population began in 1998. At most 300,000 salmon returned up the river, last year there were only 100,000.
They are not sure why the stock has been so greatly reduced, but it is speculated that overfishing over the past 50 years in Alaska is the cause of the collapse.
– Fishermen had huge nets and caught many older farmed fish. Due to the heavy fishing pressure on the older fish, they are now the youngest fish again. That means fewer fish, and smaller salmon produce fewer fish than larger ones, says Don Toews of APTN’s Yukon Salmon Subcommittee.
Published
07/26/2014, at 10:39 a.m.
