Amid severely restricted fishing on the Kuskokwim River, one bright spot has been abundant sockeye salmon runs at 30,000 fish daily near Bethel.
Biologists do not expect either to reach their goals for fish reaching their spawning grounds.
The booming Bristol Bay salmon run has broken the record set just last year, while on the Yukon River, Chinook are too scarce to harvest.
The tomcod harvests in the Kongiganak, Cavuuneq and Ilkivik Rivers have been a failure. Also in other areas, based on observations from Chevak and Chefornak. Both the surface and bottom trawl results show a clear decline in tomcod biomass in the North Bering Sea.
A decades-long decline in salmon in the Yukon River has reached a crisis this year, forcing harvest closures and prompting emergency shipments of salmon from other regions of Alaska to river residents who are otherwise facing food shortages.
Chum returns are the lowest on record, leaving communities with empty freezers and uncertainty about getting through the winter.
The Kuskokwim River king salmon run does not look particularly strong this year, but chum numbers look even worse. Historically, around 60% of the salmon in the river at this point in the season would be chum or sockeye, but right now Bethel Test Fishery numbers show that just over 20% of the salmon are.
Dead or dying eggs in a female coho salmon are a possible symptom of environmental stress felt by the fish. In Western Alaska, water levels have been low following a rapid spring snowmelt and low precipitation.
Usually Aug. 7 is the midpoint of the coho run, but this year it was not until Aug. 8 that numbers at the Bethel test fishery increased, and then only modestly.
Fish in a local pond may have been washed to their new location during a recent severe rain event.
Subsistence families along the Kuskokwim River are cutting open fish to find white balls or white streaks deforming the meat.
As fishing restrictions push salmon harvests on the Kuskokwim River later into the wet part of summer, families are seeking new ways to dry their fish and keep bugs away.
Smelt caught in Bethel with fungal infection previously found in the Norton Sound region.
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Some local officials suspect water pollution killed the fish, but state officials offered an alternative explanation.
Smart started finding dead fish in his trap near Dull Lake about two or three weeks ago. Now there are hundreds and hundreds of them.Some local officials suspect water pollution killed the fish, but state officials offered an alternative explanation. According to the Fish and Game representative a local fisherman forgot to check a blackfish trap and may have dumped the dead fish in Dull Lake.
A resident of the community was near the gravel pit when he came across a number of dead fish.
Residents who have long depended on chinook salmon to fill drying racks and smokehouses are worried about their food for next winter.
Smelt caught on the Kugkaktlik River were found to have dark spots on the skin. Photo examination suggests that the cause is the same black fungus found in saffron cod in Norton Sound. Continued surveillance for this condition in fish is requested by LEO Network members.
4/4/15 Increase in pike - Quinhagak, Alaska, USA
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