The Chilkoot River eulachon run has yet to materialize and could be the lowest on record since Chilkoot Indian Association and Takshanuk Watershed Council began monitoring runs in 2010. Researchers and fishermen say cold water is a possible culprit and that eulachon that typically spawn in other rivers ran up the Chilkat River instead.
“There’s a run happening on the Chilkat River,” said CIA field technician Meredith Pochardt. “That’s been going pretty strong for about 10 days now. That looks pretty good. The other rivers we’re monitoring, the Chilkoot, the Ferebee, Katzehin, Taiyasanka and Skagway, we’re seeing very low to no returns.”
Pochardt said they believe there is a correlation between low, cold water levels and decreased runs.
CIA fisheries specialist Ted Hart thinks the “scouts” swam up the Chikoot River, went as far as the weir and decided to spawn elsewhere.
“Scouts are the first ones to go up the river. It’s really important to give the scouts a little bit of space so they can get established,” Hart said Tuesday. “They help establish the rest of the biomass. If they don’t like it, they can turn around and go somewhere else. It’s possible they went around to the Chilkat side. The Chilkat side is going pretty strong still.”
Tlingit cultural traditions emphasize respecting the scouts, which symbolize, among other things, light and resolving disputes among neighbors who gather for the first time to fish after a long, dark winter.
“It’s encouraged to dissolve disputes,” Hart said. “The eulachon are endowed with lots of light. They’re the people of the light. When Raven released the light, people were fishing for eulachon and they got scared and took off but the hooligan were left there and all that light went into the hooligan. Light can be a lot of things: good energy, physical light.”
Life-long eulachon fisherman Sonny Williams, who catches 10 gallons each year to smoke and eat, said he’s noticed that colder water temperatures prevent spawning. He said he thinks some eulachon this spring spawned closer to the mouth of the Chilkoot River and then left.
Unlike salmon, eulachon don’t die in the river after spawning. They’re also not tied to their native stream.
“We have seen them hop around and go to different rivers. That could be the case,” Pochardt said. “We’re still monitoring the Chilkoot. I think it’s getting pretty late now. We’ll still monitor it for at least another week and see if any more action happens. We’ll hold that hope that it could still happen, but we’ve never seen that run this late either.”
The Chilkat River has lots of room for eulachon, Pochardt said, and can support a large run.
The 2020 and 2019 Chilkoot River returns were some of the biggest on record, Pochardt said. There’s still much to learn about eulachon life cycles. She said there’s evidence that eulachon spawn and die and that they can spawn more than once.
“They do swim back out. They don’t die in the river like salmon do,” Pochardt said. “They’ll be falling back with the current and they could die in the ocean or they could survive for another round of spawning.”
Williams said he measures the fish each year and thinks eulachon returning to the Chilkat River are 6- year-olds. “Last year was a four-year-old run and they were all small and skinny. This year they’re a lot larger.”
CIA will provide run estimates later this season.