A closure of subsistence and sport fishing in Lynn Canal last spring apparently had its desired effect.

The Department of Fish and Game has met its escapement goal, as an estimated 2,300 large, spawning chinook are estimated to have returned to Chilkat River spawning grounds. The department seeks a goal of 1,850 to 3,600 spawners to sustain the run.

“I’m very happy with that. That’s a good escapement,” said sport fish biologist Rich Chapell. “I’m confident we met our escapement goal but that was because of closing Chilkat Inlet. That made a big difference in getting fish to the spawning ground.”

But Chapell said it’s still too early to say whether closures will be needed next year. “King salmon production in the ocean is still not recovered to what it was five years ago and more.”

Typically more than 200 kings are taken by sport fishermen, and 100 or more are caught each by subsistence and commercial fishermen.

Chapell said the latest studies show that kings spawned in 2009 showed a higher survival rate than those in 2008, a positive indicator. “It looks like decrease in marine survival has bottomed out. So we can expect better brood year survival in the future.”

Members of the Haines Sportsman’s Association, which organizes the annual Haines King Salmon Derby, said this week that the run – even with extensive protections – is still below healthy numbers.

“It’s not encouraging at all,” said Shane Horton, president of the group, which cancelled its 2015 derby. The derby has raised money for local youth activities for decades.

Horton said too many Chilkat-bound fish are still being caught in fisheries elsewhere. “My feeling is that we have to manage this as a terminal fishery and stop screwing around with an intercept fishery at Icy Strait and other places,” Horton said this week. “You have to manage the run at its end and you should be intercepting Chilkat River fish 150 miles away from here.”

Fish and Game studies show that about a decade ago, the marine survival rate of juvenile kings fluctuated between 3 and 5 percent, but more recently has dropped as low as 1 percent. Chilkat fish rear just offshore the Panhandle or inside its waters, unlike kings from other Southeast rivers that migrate to the Gulf of Alaska to grow.

A projected low return of kings led to closure of the inlet to sportfishing and subsistence fishing until July 15, the most far-reaching restrictions in recent years. It also canceled the annual salmon derby.

The Chilkat king return has seen a steady decline. In the early 1990s, about 5,000 kings returned annually to the Chilkat. That number has dropped below 2,000 for four of the past five years, including 1,534 spawners in 2014.

The department uses mark-recapture method to estimate the run size, tagging fish caught in June and July in fish wheels at 9 Mile and recapturing them at spawning grounds in August.

Biologist Chapell said this year’s run of kings returned in “very strong” numbers to the Tahini River and in strong numbers to Big Boulder Creek. Spawners also returned to the Kelsall River, Little Boulder Creek and 37 Mile Creek, Chapell said.

Fish and Game will make a forecast of king abundance for 2016 after getting age information from this year’s fish using scale samples.