Sport fishermen won’t be able to fish for king salmon at a popular slough near Petersburg this summer because of low projected returns. But anglers in boats will be able to fish for kings in the saltwater at the mouth of the slough. As KFSK’s Hannah Flor reports, some fishermen are frustrated with the plan.
Petersburg sport fisherman Eric Wolf said when he’s fishing for king salmon at Blind River Rapids, it’s not sunshine that makes the perfect summer day.
“It’s those rainy days with a little bit of wind that just happens to blow the bugs away from you and keep them so you’re not wearing some you know, net over your head,” he said.”
But net or no net, Wolf won’t be fishing for kings there this summer. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced on February 20th that the freshwater sport fishery will not open for its usual season from June 1 until July 31.
However, fishing for kings in saltwater, at the mouth of Blind Slough, will open June 1 as usual. Fishermen can get there by boat from the Wrangell Narrows.
Blind River Rapids is about 14 miles south of Petersburg. Most people get there via a quarter-mile long boardwalk from Mitkof Highway. It’s one of the only places on the island to sportfish for salmon without a boat. Wolf said that while he does own a boat, and could fish the mouth of the slough, it’s not the same.
“I prefer to fish the rivers and take the hike, and it’s almost that spiritual thing where instead of listening to the motor run for 20 or 30 minutes, I get the pack on, I walk down the boardwalk, I cross the river in a good spot, and I walked down to the position, the place where I want to fish,” he said. “It’s almost like a Zen moment – there’s something to be said about listening to the water and, you know, landing fish, you know.”
The slough’s king salmon are hatchery fish that swim two miles up Blind River Rapids to return to Crystal Lake Hatchery. The hatchery rears king and coho salmon for sport fisheries. Each year they need a specific number of salmon to return to the hatchery in order to raise new fish for future salmon runs.
The slough’s sport fishing is regulated by the Wrangell Narrows-Blind Slough Terminal Harvest Area Salmon Management Plan created by the state Board of Fisheries in 1997. The plan closes freshwater king fishing if the projected returns dip below 2,000 fish. If it gets worse, to 1,000 fish, saltwater fishing for kings will also close. Freshwater sport fishing for king salmon closed once, in the summer of 2013. It was partly closed in 2012 and 2014.
This year the projected king salmon return to the hatchery is 1,400 fish.
King salmon stocks have not been doing well around Southeast Alaska. Jeff Rice said these Crystal Lake hatchery kings are no different. He is the state’s sport fish biologist for Petersburg and Wrangell. He said an added challenge for the hatchery kings is their destination.
“They have to swim a two mile stretch from the rapids to the hatchery in very shallow, very warm water in July,” he said. “That is the biggest factor as far as getting them back to the hatchery, is making it through that two mile stretch.”
He said the salmon are particularly affected because the run happens in the heart of summer.
“It’s just a terrible place to have a king salmon hatchery that they have to swim through, that two mile stretch,” he said.
Rice said that in three of the last five years, the hatchery did not have enough king salmon return to meet their broodstock goals. Broodstock are the fish used to produce the next generation of salmon.
Rice said that while he can’t be sure why the management plan closes the freshwater fishery before the saltwater fishery, he suspects it’s because king salmon already in the rapids are one step closer to the hatchery. Those fish are more likely to return to the hatchery and help meet broodstock goals for next year.
The hatchery is operated by the Southern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association or SSRAA.
“I believe from my conversations with SSRAA, that they feel that it is important to cut off that freshwater fishing because the fish are their most vulnerable at that point,” he said. “So I don’t know if that was the origin of the plan or not, but that is working as far as the hatchery believes.”
But fisherman Eric Wolf said the freshwater closure will affect locals who don’t have boats and can’t fish the saltwater. He said a lot of people depend on the fishery to fill their freezers for the year.
“I don’t know what the solution is for those that can’t fish in other ways. There isn’t one. And I know that the world’s not fair. But there has to be some kind of middle ground here,” he said.
He said it feels especially unfair since many of the boats fishing the saltwater are lodge-owned boats filled with tourists. Wolf said those lodge boats are catching a disproportionate share of the king salmon.
“I’m not saying ‘Let’s fish it till it goes dry.’ I think if it’s truly in an emergency state, we need to be responsible with it, but I think the solution needs to be equitable,” he said.
“I don’t care if somebody has a commercial resource that depends upon this. You have individuals that depend upon this for food and if they can’t depend upon it for food, I don’t think it’s reasonable that other people should profit by it. I think people over profit should be our first concern.”
Jeff Rice said it is possible to open the fishery with an emergency order. But that order would have to be based on data that shows the hatchery will be getting higher returns than predicted.
“In order to have an emergency order, it needs to come with new information,” he said. “So June 1, maybe we’ll have some information. But I really need to have something that is telling me something different than the forecast.”
He stressed that if the hatchery doesn’t get its broodstock back, it would create an even bigger problem down the road.
“I want to see people out there catching fish, more anglers is better, more opportunity is better. And that’s what we’re trying to produce,” he said.
He said he’ll be working closely with the hatchery while trying to respond to the public’s input.
“The management plan, we have to follow,” he said. “Can it be adapted into something better for today’s times? Yes. And there’s a process for that.”
Rice said anyone interested in changing the management plan should act now. The Board of Fisheries accepts proposed changes to Southeast fishing regulations once every three years. It is currently accepting proposals for its 2025 meeting in Ketchikan. Anyone can submit a proposal. Rice said he encourages anyone interested in writing a proposal to do so. He said he’d be happy to help draft the language. The deadline for proposals is April 10 this year.
