Slow Yukon River king salmon run predicted

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that it could be a miserable year for fishermen looking to bag king salmon on the Yukon River -- not to mention those who rely on the fish for subsistence. According to a state fisheries biologist, the run this year is expected to be between 130,000 and 178,000, numbers which the biologist describes as "below average to poor." This predicted number will prevent commercial fishing of the kings and impose restrictions on fishing time for subsistence fishermen -- who typically haul in around 50,000 kings every year, according to the article -- as the state attempts to reach the minimum 42,500 kings passing the border as mandated by a treaty with Canada. Subsistence fishermen are interested in creating a sustainable run of kings on the Yukon, but expressed concern about salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea, before the kings even enter the Yukon. The Board of Fisheries also established new restrictions on the size of the nets fishermen can use to bag the kings, in the hopes that the smaller nets will allow more large, egg-carrying females upstream. Read much more, at the News-Miner.