Kenai River late-run king salmon were named a stock of management concern by the State Board of Fisheries during a work session last week.
A stock of management concern, according to the department’s website, is a stock with “chronic inability” to maintain escapements within set goals despite the implementation of management measures.
A memo to the board from the department’s Division of Sport Fish says the board-set optimal escapement goal for large late-run Kenai River king salmon “has not been achieved in the four years that it has been in place.” The stock has also failed to achieve the department-set sustainable escapement goal in three of the last five years.
That consistent failure to achieve goals means that the stock fits the criteria for the designation, the memo says.
Tim McKinley, regional fisheries research coordinator for the Southcentral office of the State Department of Fish and Game, on Oct. 12 presented recommendations to the board based on that memo.
“The Department also recommends that Kenai River late-run king salmon be designated as a stock of management concern,” he said.
The board voted unanimously to implement the designation on a motion by member Tom Carpenter.
The board’s meeting notes say that an “Action Plan” for the stock will be considered at their Upper Cook Inlet Finfish meeting scheduled to run from Feb. 23 to March 6.
An action plan was recently prepared for the Nushagak River King Salmon stock — described as a stock of management concern in 2022. The action plan individually considers the various fisheries — in that case commercial, sport and subsistence. It analyzes each of those fisheries and recommends possible actions that can be taken by the board and department through regulation and through emergency order to manage that stock’s “return.”
That plan led to “numerous amendments to the Nushugak-Mulchatna King Salmon Management Plan,” according to notes from a Board of Fisheries meeting earlier this year in which the action plan was considered. Those amendments include language that directs the department to manage Nushagak fisheries to “provide consistent sport fishing opportunity” and “provide for an uninterrupted commercial sockeye salmon fishery” while achieving escapement goals for all species in the area.
For more information about stock of management concern, or about the Board of Fisheries, visit adfg.alaska.gov.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
