Closure of Chilkat Inlet to subsistence fishermen has been extended another week, due to a late and record-low showing of large kings moving into the river, state biologists said this week.

“We need to delay the subsistence opening. It’s definitely the case that the run is delayed or late and there’s a good chance (mature kings) are in Chilkat Inlet,” commercial fisheries biologist Mark Sogge said this week.

Fish and Game had planned to open subsistence fishing on the Chilkat south of the north latitude of Kochu Island starting Saturday. Instead, fishing in the inlet will be closed through next week, when the inlet will be opened to subsistence nets July 22.

That amounts to a one-month delay in when subsistence fishing historically has started in Chilkat Inlet.

This week’s delay rankled some subsistence users. Tim Ackerman, an Alaska Native and subsistence advocate, said several commercial fisheries south of Haines have been taking kings while Chilkat Inlet subsistence fishermen haven’t wet their nets.

“The first rule they wrote in the subsistence book is that, in the event of a shortage, subsistence users should have priority over all other users. Subsistence takes 3 to 5 percent of the harvest. That isn’t much,” Ackerman said. He said the Haines ANB would be writing to state and federal subsistence officials about the situation on the Chilkat.

Unlike commercial and sport fishermen, subsistence users have few resources for making their case when decisions governing fisheries are made, Ackerman said.

“They have a lot of representation and a lot of money. We don’t have representation or money for lobbying anybody to our side. Somebody should be lobbying for us at the state and federal level,” Ackerman said.

Ackerman said as the king run continues to decline, it should be obvious that state restrictions on users other than subsistence fishermen haven’t gone far enough. “Everybody wants to be a millionaire off our natural resources and no one’s thinking about the long run,” he said.

Subsistence fisherman Michael George said he was planning to fish near David’s Cove this weekend. He uses an old skiff he got for free and said the 30 sockeye he takes are “super important” to his household.

“For so many people it seems like just a lifestyle, but for some of us, it’s really important,” George said. He said the state should make subsistence fishing in the Chilkat River easier, as that requires only a net and can be done by low-income residents.

“For people with no money, a person with a bike can go out to 4 Mile and at least get some food. I want the kings to survive, but they survive best if you’re by the river and just sitting by your net,” George said.

Even with the most restrictive closures in memory, the Chilkat River king salmon run may not meet escapement goals if recent population estimates are accurate, biologists said this week.

Rich Chapell, sport fish biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said only 38 large kings had been caught in fish wheels and a lower-river test fishery through Tuesday. He said that ties for the lowest July count since 1991. Between 1994 and 2016, early July counts of kings in the lower river have averaged 151.

Brian Elliott, a chinook research biologist for Fish and Game, said the run is tracking for an escapement of 800 to 900 fish. “We’re way down.” Last year, king escapement dropped to 1,386, the lowest in at least 27 years, and perhaps longer.

Sogge said the reason for the extension on the subsistence closure is that more than half of the kings counted in the lower river have entered in the past week.

This year’s in-river numbers tie with 2013, which also did not meet the state’s goal of returning 1,850 large kings to the river to spawn.

Chilkat king escapement has steadily declined from about 6,000 fish in the early 1990s. Efforts to protect returning kings this year included closure of the sport fishery and new restrictions on subsistence and commercial fishermen.

“Our forecast is coming true, which is unfortunate,” Chapell said. “We’re pretty certain we’ll be below the escapement goal this year.”

The state’s estimate will be refined when Fish and Game checks king spawning areas in August. “By Labor Day we’ll have a more precise estimate.”

Research biologist Elliott said Chilkat River fish wheels are catching “one-ocean jacks,” young fish that are typically still in the ocean. That indicated either early maturation of fish spawned in 2014 or good early-life history survival. “We’re hoping it’s the latter, not the former,” he said.

Fish returning early can suggest either poor rearing conditions in the ocean or good survival of eggs becoming mature fish, Elliott said.