June 15, 2018 — The Alaska Department of Fish and Game issued an emergency order Wednesday closing the personal-use and sport fishing for Copper River sockeye around Chitina until further notice.
The closure goes into effect on Monday, June 18th. Commercial fishing stopped on May 28th, and next week the department will determine how the low numbers will effect subsistence fishing.
Area management biologist, Mark Somerville calls the move “unprecedented.”
“It’s the second lowest on record basically in the last 50 years, pretty much since statehood,” Somerville said. “And there’s lots of different reason for it.”
Somerville says a mass of warm temperatures in the Gulf of Alaska and need for more food by the fish are to blame. “That’s the ‘blob’ thing,” Somerville said.
As of June 10, the Copper River weir shows that 154,866 reds have passed the counter since May 18. In the same period last year, 320,484 sockeye had swum up the river.
Alaska is famous for it’s Copper River salmon exports. Mega PR blitz signal the start of the season including Alaska Airlines flying the first fish to Seattle where eager chefs await it with outstretched arms.
The fish glistens with hard-earned fat, after swimming and eating across thousands of miles, from birth in the snow-fed waters of Alaskan rivers to the chilly sea.