Alaska Fish & Game Has Already Closed Five King Salmon Runs - Even Catch-And-Release Banned

[hatrack]

Worried that another dismal king salmon season is looming, biologists at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on Tuesday closed three more Southcentral king salmon fisheries before the first salmon arrived.

Anglers are banned from fishing for kings on the Theodore, Lewis and Chuitna rivers. Even catch and release is off limits. That makes five area king fisheries sharply restricted before the season starts. Most have been completely shuttered, though the Ayakulik River on Kodiak Island remains open to catch-and-release fishing. The Karluk River on Kodiak Island has been closed.

None of the three Cook Inlet rivers has met its escapement goal the past three years, according to Fish and Game. That goal is the number of fish biologists want upstream to spawn, ensuring future runs.

"There's going to be a lot of people upset," said Bruce Knowles, chairman of the Mat-Su Mayor's Sportsmen's Committee. "I submitted those three streams to the Board of Fish to declare them streams of concern back in February."

EDIT

http://www.adn.com/2010/05/04/1263755/state-shuts-three-more-king-fisheries.html

[FreakinDJ]

1. California has lost it's salmon fisheries as well

in just the last 3 years - some thing is going on bigger then regional problems

[GliderGuider]

3. The salmon run in the Fraser River in BC has collapsed as well

It has become the subject of a federal government inquiry into the policies and practices of the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

[hatrack]

4. You mean, the same department that did such an outstanding job with the Atlantic cod?

:eyes:

[GliderGuider]

5. That would be the one...

:banghead:

[dipsydoodle]

2. Doing so

is an investment for the future.

[joshcryer]

7. If they can recoup anyway.

[pscot]

6. k&r

n/t

[Enthusiast]

8. Restrictions can help.

Look how the Striped Bass populations on the East Coast have rebounded. These restrictions should extend to other species--any species under too much pressure, until they recover. Populations simply can't reproduce if there are no "parent fish".