A $100,000 sonar camera installed at the Chilkat Lake weir since 2008 will likely be mothballed this year by the Department of Fish and Game due to budget cuts, area management biologist Randy Bachman said this week.
The DIDSON camera records sockeye salmon entering Chilkat Lake. It runs continuously, saving footage that’s reviewed by a Fish and Game employee.
Though the decision isn’t final and is only included in Fish and Game’s proposed budget submitted to Gov. Bill Walker’s office, Bachman said he’s almost positive the program won’t be funded next year.
“It’s going to happen, even if it’s not official until the budget gets passed. We are 99.9 percent confident the proposed budget is going to be reality,” Bachman said. Sidelining the camera program will save about $75,000 a year in personnel costs, he said.
The camera gives Fish and Game accurate data for managing the fishery and the future harvest of the resource. In place of it, Fish and Game will use its two fish wheels and mark-recapture program to gauge sockeye returns to Chilkat Lake.
“It’s not going to be as precise as what we’ve got going with the sonar,” Bachman said.
Mark-recapture involves capturing and tagging a portion of a fish run, then estimating the total size of the run based on recaptured, tagged fish that return to the spawning grounds.
Commercial fishermen are concerned about the imprecise nature of wheel counts, and its implications for how the fishery is managed. At last week’s Upper Lynn Canal Fish and Game Advisory Committee meeting, Bachman confirmed some of those fears.
“The bottom line is we’re going to be more conservative in Chilkat Inlet without this tool,” he said.
Commercial gillnetter Norman Hughes said he is concerned about the camera’s removal, particularly because Chilkat Lake has been struggling to meet escapement goals in recent years. Fish and Game will err on the side of caution when managing the fishery, he said.
“They are on the side of fish. That is their job. And if they don’t have accurate data that they can trust, they will cut the (commercial) fishery,” Hughes said.
“If we lose funding one year, we are going to lose it for years to come, and I think the fishery will suffer from it,” he added.
The $75,000 in savings comes from cutting three employees who watch the sonar recordings and man the weir. It also saves on boat gas, camp supplies and other miscellaneous expenses of operating the weir, Bachman said.
Lowell Fair, who is Bachman’s boss and Fish and Game’s regional supervisor, said getting rid of the camera would barely affect management. “It really won’t change the way we manage at all,” Fair said.
Although Fish and Game has used the camera since 2008, it has used fish wheels and mark-recapture to manage the fishery in-season. The camera originally was employed to verify that the fish wheels were providing accurate information, which it proved: Fair said mark-recapture estimates and camera counts were close.
Fair referred to the camera as “kind of a duplication,” performing the same task as mark-recapture.
“We feel very comfortable that we are still getting a really good count from the mark-recapture,” Fair said.
Fair reiterated that the budget isn’t final until passed by the legislature. “There’s nothing set in stone as far as what is going to be cut.”
The department acquired the DIDSON in 2008 via a legislative appropriation largely spearheaded by former Rep. Bill Thomas, who is also a Haines-based commercial gillnetter.