Tag Archives: Yukon River Panel

Yukon River Panel hears fishing moratorium on Yukon River chinook may be ‘too little, too late’

A new international agreement on chinook salmon stoked at times emotional debate at the Yukon River Panel meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, this week, and while many appeared to approve of the pact, others seemed to cast doubts.  Duane Aucoin, a member of the Teslin Tlingit Council in the Yukon, said it’s taken the collapse of the chinook population to finally do something, but the natural world doesn’t work that way. “One thing we’re afraid of is, is this too little, too late?” he said. “Western policies, Western politics, Western science is what helped get us into this crisis, into this mess. Traditional knowledge will help get us out.” Photos, more, >>click to read<< 08:02

New study proposes to uncover where chinook salmon could be dying en route to Yukon

The state of Alaska is proposing new research to track dwindling chinook salmon numbers this spring, and it’s possible the study could eventually extend into the Yukon. This week, members of the bilateral Yukon River Panel met in Anchorage, Alaska, to brainstorm ways to help the salmon, which undertake one of the longest salmon migrations in the world. It’s during this migration, though, that tens of thousands of salmon seem to go missing every year. >click to read< 10:23

2021 Yukon River Chinook salmon run will likely be small, according to forecast

Somewhere between 42,000 and 77,000 Canadian-origin fish are anticipated to make the journey from the Bering Sea this year, Alaska and Yukon experts told attendees during the Yukon River Panel’s pre-season meeting on Tuesday. The most likely run size would be 57,000, they said. That’s smaller than the pre season outlooks for 2020 and 2019, and both those years ended disastrously when it came to getting enough salmon across the border. Under an international treaty, Canada and the U.S. are supposed to work together to ensure at least 42,500 fish make it to their spawning waters in Yukon. That spawning escapement goal hasn’t been met since 2018, last year only about 33,000 Chinook made it. >click to read< 13:21

Scientists puzzled by 30,000 chinook that seem to be missing from Yukon River

Salmon counts on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border in 2020 were discussed recently at a meeting of the Yukon River Panel. One finding stood out. Last year about 77,000 chinook salmon were counted swimming by the Pilot Sonar station near the mouth of the Yukon River in Alaska. About 1,750 kilometres upriver, at the Eagle Sonar station, just before the Alaska-Yukon border, about 49,500 were counted. This could mean fish are dying or being miscounted, or that harvesting is going unreported, though there is no evidence of that. All parties agree that it’s a mystery and requires investigation. >click to read< 19:25

Alaska promises to do better on Yukon River salmon

CBC_News_logoInternational salmon talks with the Yukon River Panel have wrapped up in Whitehorse. In the last seven years, Alaska has delivered its salmon quotas on the Yukon River, twice. This year, the Alaskans are promising to do better. Andrew Bassich is the U.S. delegate from Eagle, Alaska. more@cbcnews  20:31