OPINION: Action is needed now to save Yukon River salmon

My grandfather and people who I know here in Ruby have fished the Yukon River for time immemorial. Salmon are my lifeblood, a huge part of my culture. They feed my soul and provide food security in volatile times such as now. Something real needs to be done to protect the salmon from completely crashing, much like what happened to the Atlantic Ocean fisheries on the other side of America. No more meetings, tough talk and lawsuits — we demand action! Too long have I watched idly by to witness the salmon populations continually dwindle. In more than 20 years of monitoring, the chinooks will have cycled out more than three times. The chum salmon will have cycled out more than four times.

I went to the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) 2023 in Anchorage and heard the cry of the people to do something about salmon preservation. I felt compelled to write this commentary with a few suggestions.

The chinook salmon spent their seven years rearing in the Bering Sea over to Russia and China, somewhere in the high seas. Something is happening out there with overfishing, incidental catch by other countries. The Alaska delegation needs to address this situation on the international level.

The chum salmon rear in the Gulf of Alaska once they hit the ocean, then pass through area M and False Pass. I believe we can limit fishing there to protect the future of our salmon species. Also, the chum spent four to five years in the Gulf of Alaska, where they compete for ocean food with the two billion pink salmon that get released each year. One option is to stop this pink salmon release for a few salmon cycles to protect Yukon River chum salmon. This is an immediate control measure.

We need another sonar to count salmon around Ruby on the Yukon River to monitor numbers, as currently there is one at the mouth of the Yukon River and one at Eagle, nearly in Canada. This is not acceptable. A concerted effort needs to bring a sonar to the middle Yukon to address the demise of the salmon numbers.

I have followed the numbers of chinook and chum salmon since the population started to drastically decline more than 20 years ago. It is time to start talking about spawning enhancement in all the spawning tributaries. A wild skein of eggs has 5% recruitment after spawning and 85% with hatchery enhancement after spawning. This stage of life is called smoltification, from eggs to small fry. I heard about enhancements, like the Moist Air Incubator that assists eggs during the first 10 days, which we call the eye stage. Trying these types of enhancements will preserve the wild stocks until the “powers that be” come to some kind of solution to bring back our traditional survival food.

The other issue that concerns me is the limited-entry permit that the state of Alaska holds sway over. These permits are owned by non-Alaskans which number nearly 60%. These commercial fishing permits are transferable. If the state of Alaska makes them non-transferrable, this will add another control measure that would protect our salmon from over harvest.

I think we need to have stronger measures like requiring 100% of fishing fleets to have a state/federal observer on the fishing vessels to help monitor by-catch, which with corrective action can enhance the survival of Chum and Chinook Salmon.

Also, the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council is run by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Foundation (NOAA), which is also run by the U.S. Commerce Committee. The chair is U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state; Washington and Oregon residents hold more than 60% of Alaska commercial limited-entry permits. I believe this issue needs to be addressed. We all have to compromise on salmon fishing to save what is left of our once-abundant salmon populations.

Climate change is also unpredictable, a slow-moving disaster, and I hope the next 20 years will bring positive change with a salmon population resurgence by those who reside over salmon species.

Without salmon, a huge part of my Native culture will die. I do not want my culture to fade away. I recently read about a Supreme Court Justice talking passionately about the preservation of Native peoples in a U.S. Supreme Court decision. I will quote a comment from Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, as reported by the New York Times: “The law upheld by the court, he wrote, vindicated at least three promises: The right of Indian parents to raise their families as they please; the right of Indian children to grow in their culture; and the right of Indian communities to resist fading into the twilight of history.” I too do not want my culture to fade away into the twilight of history, my people being here for thousands of years.

Much respect from me to those who have studied and continue to study the demise of our salmon species. Let’s take out salmon politics and biological arguments, and commit to immediate salmon restoration in small increments.

Patrick McCarty is the First Chief of the Native Village of Ruby in Interior Alaska.

The views expressed here are the writer’s and are not necessarily endorsed by the Anchorage Daily News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and commentaries here.