KENAI, Alaska (AP) - The Board of Fisheries has changed its target for how many late-run sockeye salmon need to make it out of the Kenai River.
The board spent its first day deliberating an Alaska Department of Fish and Game proposal seeking to a review of escapement and inriver goals on Kenai River for late-run salmon, The Peninsula Clarion reported Monday (https://bit.ly/2lbU2j0 ). Ultimately, the board moved to eliminate the optimum escapement goal and to increase the ceiling of two of the inriver goal tiers.
The mathematical and technical discussion took up most of the board’s time.
The decision was intended as a compromise between sportfishing and commercial fishing groups. Commercial groups had argued the optimum escapement goal was redundant because a sustainable escapement goal already exists. Sportfishing groups said the optimum goal allowed managers flexibility during years with large returns.
“One of the things that was in (the original proposal) was trying to manage for multiple goals,” said board member Robert Ruffner. “One of the first steps was removing the OEG . the second point that I thought was increasing the upper end of the inriver goal.”
The Kenai River will now be managed under a sustainable escapement goal of 700,000 to 1.2 million sockeye salmon. Inriver goals will have three tiers, based on the total projected run.
The bottom tier, when total runs are projected less than 2.3 million fish, will remain the same. The middle tier, when the total run is projected between 2.3 million and 4.6 million, will now be managed for between 1 million and 1.3 million fish. The upper tier, when runs are projected to be greater than 4.6 million fish, will now be managed for 1.1 million to 1.5 million fish.
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Information from: (Kenai, Alaska) Peninsula Clarion, https://www.peninsulaclarion.com
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