Subsistence fishermen along the Yukon River say they’re having to rely increasingly on expensive store goods and food stamps to meet their caloric needs. Via KYUKNews
Yukon River residents are not able to make dry fish from chum and chinook for the second year in a row.
Each week during the summer, subsistence users and managers up and down the Yukon meet on a teleconference to share fish news and reports. This week on the call, Anvik First Chief Robert Walker said that people are hanging on by a thread.That’s because there’s not much food swimming up the river. As the summer salmon runs finish up, counts are once again at record lows. Chinook runs had been dwindling for years, but last year the region suffered an unexpected chum salmon crash, too.
“There are no chinook in the Yukon. They’re at 40,000. Remember how last year was like this terrible year, there was 150,000. This year, there’s 40,000. That’s my point. I’m not trying to be dramatic, but there are no chinook,” said Westley.“I thought all these things, like if we did X, Y, and Z, like, they’ll come back. Like, I think I might be wrong. It’s a collapse. I mean, it’s heartbreaking,” said Westley.
Normally this time of year, bears would be filling their bellies with river fish, and people would be preparing for the fall chum run. But that won’t be an option this year either.Gleason is the fall manager from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. She said that she expects that subsistence fishing for fall chum will remain closed on the whole Yukon for the second season in a row.
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