Gillnetters in the Lynn Canal will face restrictions similar to last year’s despite a slight rebound in the Chilkat River chinook salmon population last year.

The Chilkat River chinook, more commonly known as king salmon, was designated a stock of concern at the 2018 Board of Fish (BOF) meeting after multiple years of failing to achieve escapement goals. The BOF approved an action plan outlining management actions to reduce harvest of Chilkat River chinook.

Escapement goals are the number of mature salmon that need to make it to spawning grounds each year to ensure the population remains sustainable. Chilkat River king escapements are measured through a “mark and recapture” process where fish are marked with a tag at the fishwheels and during a drift net project in the Chilkat River, then released and recaptured at their spawning grounds. The ratio between tagged and untagged fish allows the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to estimate the total number of fish that make it up the river each year.

“Fish and Game manages for an annual Chilkat River chinook salmon escapement goal range of 1,700 and 3,500 large fish,” Haines commercial fisheries biologist Nicole Zeiser said.

Last year, the Chilkat River chinook salmon escapement goal was achieved for the first time since 2015, with a total return of 2,028 fish.

Although this is positive, Chilkat kings are still a ways from being removed from the list of stocks of concern, Zeiser said.

“We want to see at least three years in a row meeting escapement goals, before we’d even consider removing it,” Zeiser said.

And three years of healthy returns won’t necessarily change the stock’s designation.

“Production has been poor for several years, so we will need to be conservative for quite a while,” Zeiser said.

This means that the Haines gillnet fleet will, once again, see a set of fairly conservative management restrictions for the 2020 season.

The commercial drift gillnet fishery in Lynn Canal will have time and area restriction in both Sections 15-A and 15-C, Zeiser said. In 15-A, the upper Lynn Canal, fishing will be limited to the Eldred Rock Lighthouse area and fishing time will be limited to two days a week. In 15-C, the lower Lynn Canal, fishing will again be limited to the “Postage Stamp,” an area north of Auke Bay and south of Berners Bay, with two days of fishing. Night closures will be in effect from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. and a six-inch maximum mesh restriction will be in place.

“All the restrictions are due to Chilkat River chinook salmon conservation,” Zeiser said.

The mesh restrictions are designed to reduce king salmon harvest. These salmon tend to be larger than the other five species.

“Most kings will bounce off that size net,” Zeiser said.

The night restrictions will also reduce the likelihood of catching chinook, which studies have shown are more likely to be caught at night when they tend to feed closer to the surface, Zeiser said.

Gillnet season opens on June 21. This year, chinook management restrictions will remain in place until at least July 25 for the upper Lynn Canal area near Eldred Rock. Restrictions will remain until at least July 11 for the area near Berners Bay, which is farther from Chilkat kings’ spawning habitat.

This year’s Chilkat River chinook forecast is 1,550 fish, slightly higher than the forecast in 2019, but still below the escapement range. Zeiser said Fish and Game will reevaluate the management restrictions based on data collected from its onsite stock-assessment projects.

“Management decisions are primarily based on what we’re seeing escape into the rivers,” Zeiser said. Later in the season, gillnet restrictions could ease to three or four days of fishing a week “if we feel we’re on track to meet escapement.”

Chinook population management restrictions, particularly the two-day restriction, limit income for local gillnetters.

“Every day we can’t fish, we’re losing opportunity. The fish don’t hang around—they’re going somewhere,” Haines fisherman Norm Hughes said.

Hughes estimates he catches 5,000 pounds of fish on days he’s allowed to gillnet. The restrictions translate to tens of thousands in lost revenue over the course of a season, he said.

Hughes and other local fishermen are trying to remain optimistic despite management restrictions.

“You just deal with (the restrictions) and go fishing,” Steve Fossman said. “I think a lot of the fishermen are used to all different kinds of obstacles along the way. Most guys I talk to are just going to go fishing and see how it goes, just like every year.”

Hughes expressed a similar feeling.

“I’m going to go no matter what and give it a try,” Hughes said. “I like fishing.”

“Sit, stay, make it pay” is Hughes’ motto. “You work a spot, keep your head down and see what you get,” he said.

Management restrictions are just one obstacle. Price and run size are also concerns this season.

Aside from chinook, projections for most of the other salmon species in the Lynn Canal region are expected to be average or slightly above average based on a variety of factors including parent year escapement numbers. Parent years are based on the life cycle of each salmon species. For example, sockeye returning to the river this year spawned in 2014 or 2015.

Run estimates for wild sockeye, chum and coho in Lynn Canal will be average, if not above average for sockeye. The projection for pink salmon is below average this year. The summer chum forecast for the Douglas Island Pink and Chum (DIPAC) hatchery release sites at Boat Harbor and Amalga Harbor Terminal Hatchery Areas is approximately 1.3 million.

Researchers don’t fully understand why salmon populations fluctuate from year to year, Zeiser said. “Many factors can influence salmon population including ocean survival, freshwater survival, ocean temperatures, fresh water habit, prey and food conditions.”

Price uncertainties are a part of every season.

“We don’t know what the price is going to be before we go out,” Hughes said.

Halibut season opened in March. Hughes said those who’ve gone out have reported the price is around $4 per pound, down compared to last year when it was roughly $6. Hughes said he thinks the decrease has a lot to do with COVID-19 and restaurant closures due to the pandemic, adding that he’s waiting for a better price before putting his halibut permit to use.

For chum season, Hughes worries how the price will be impacted by potential supply chain disruptions. He said 90% of the chum salmon he sells to seafood processor Ocean Beauty get sent to China for a second round of processing.

“It’s not very fun to fight with people over low fish and low prices,” Hughes said. He remembers years when the price of chum collapsed to eight or nine cents per pound, and fishermen became aggressive.

Hughes said over the course of the season, he needs to average at least $1,000 a day to make it worth it. Like many in Haines, he counts on the revenue he earns during the summer to last him through the winter.

Hughes said he plans to reassess the feasibility of gillnetting this year during the second week in July, after the chum run begins. If the price of chum is super low and the fish aren’t there, he has other fisheries including shrimp, crab, halibut and sea cucumber that he can fall back on.

And if that doesn’t work, Hughes said plan C involves “digging holes with my backhoe and charging for it.”