Yukon River Salmon Fisheries Harvest
Yukon River Salmon Fisheries Harvest Information
Yukon Territory Harvest:
Chinook Salmon
Catches of Chinook salmon in Yukon River fisheries during the ten year period from 1993 to 2002 appear in Table 2 below. Based on the 1993 to 2002 period, the average distribution of the catch in the upper Yukon (the Canadian section of the Yukon drainage excluding the Porcupine River) was as follows: 32% in the commercial fishery, 65% in the First Nation fishery, 2% in the recreational fishery and 1% in the domestic fishery.
| Year | Upper Yukon Aboriginal | Commercial Catch | Recreational Catch | Domestic Catch | Total Upper Yukon | Test Fishery Catch | Porcupine River Aboriginal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | 5,576 | 10,350 | 300 | 243 | 16,469 |
|
142 |
| 1994 | 8,089 | 12,028 | 300 | 373 | 20,790 |
|
428 |
| 1995 | 7,945 | 11,146 | 700 | 300 | 20,091 | 796 | |
| 1996 | 8451 | 10,164 | 790 | 141 | 19,546 | 66 | |
| 1997 | 8,888 | 5,311 | 1,230 | 288 | 15,717 | 811 | |
| 1998 | 4,687 | 390 | closed | 24 | 5,101 | 737 | 99 |
| 1999 | 8,804 | 3,160 | 177 | 213 | 12,455 | 114 | |
| 2000 | 4,068 | closed | 2 | closed | 4,068 | 761 | 50 |
| 2001 | 7,416 | 1,351 | 141 | 89 | 8,954 | 767 | 370 |
| 2002 | 7,143 | 708 | 43 | 59 | 8,077 | 1,036 | 188 |
| Average | 7,107 | 5,361 | 368 | 173 | 14,090 | 298 |
Chum Salmon
Catches of chum salmon in Yukon River fisheries during the ten year period from 1993 to 2002 are summarised in Table 3 below. On average, 63% of the recent upper Yukon chum salmon catch occurs in the commercial fishery and 37% in the First Nation fishery.
| Year | Upper Yukon Aboriginal | Commercial Catch | Domestic Catch | Total Upper Yukon | Porcupine River Aboriginal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 304 | 18,576 | 0 | 18,880 | 1,935 |
| 1993 | 4,660 | 7,762 | 0 | 12,422 | 1,668 |
| 1994 | 5,319 | 30,035 | 0 | 35,354 | 2,654 |
| 1995 | 1,099 | 39,012 | 0 | 40,111 | 5,489 |
| 1996 | 1,260 | 20,069 | 0 | 21,329 | 3,025 |
| 1997 | 1,218 | 8,068 | 0 | 9,286 | 6,294 |
| 1998 | 1,792 | Closed | 0 | 1,792 | 6,159 |
| 1999 | 3,234 | 10,176 | 0 | 13,410 | 4,457 |
| 2000 | 2,917 | 1,319 | 0 | 4,236 | 5,000 |
| 2001 | 3,027 | 2,198 | 3 | 5,228 | 4.594 |
| 2002 | 3,093 | 3,065 | 0 | 6,158 | 1,850 |
| Average | 2,483 | 13,744 | 0 | 16,227 | 4,128 |
Alaska Harvest:
Chinook Salmon
Most of the harvest of Canadian-origin Yukon River salmon occurs in Alaska in subsistence, commercial, and recreational fisheries. For Chinook salmon, ADF&G annually estimates the catch of Canadian-origin Chinook salmon by Alaskan fishers through the analysis of scale patterns (SPA). From 1993 through 2002, on average, 52% of the Alaskan catch of Chinook salmon in the Yukon River was comprised of Canadian-origin Chinook salmon. This translates into an average annual catch of approximately 64,200 Canadian-origin Chinook salmon in Alaskan fisheries (Table 4). On average over the past 10 years, 49% of the total Alaskan in-river Chinook salmon harvest is taken in the commercial fishery, 50% in the subsistence fishery and 1% in the recreational fishery.
The recent (1993-2002) average total harvest of Canadian origin Yukon River Chinook is approximately 77,600 (64,200 in the U.S. and 13,400 in Canada). The U.S. catch accounts for approximately 82% of the catch while Canadian fishers harvest about 18% of the total catch.
| Chinook salmon | Fall chum salmon | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Total Catch | Estimated Cdn-origin | % | Total catch | Estimated Cdn-origin | % (Assumed) |
| 1993 | 163,078 | 78,804 | 48% | 76,925 | 23,078 | 30% |
| 1994 | 172,315 | 95,676 | 56% | 131,217 | 39,365 | 30% |
| 1995 | 177,663 | 99,037 | 56% | 415,547 | 124,664 | 30% |
| 1996 | 138,562 | 88,895 | 64% | 236,569 | 70,971 | 30% |
| 1997 | 174,625 | 92,047 | 53% | 154,479 | 46,344 | 30% |
| 1998 | 99,369 | 46,875 | 47% | 62,869 | 18,861 | 30% |
| 1999 | 124,315 | 60,984 | 49% | 110,370 | 33,111 | 30% |
| 2000 | 45,308 | 22,472 | 50% | 40,849 | 12,255 | 30% |
| 2001 | 53,630 | 23,641 | 44% | 35,154 | 10,546 | 30% |
| 2002 | 69,480 | 35,225 | 51% | 20,900 | 6,270 | 30% |
| Average | 121,835 | 64,227 | 52% | 139,201 | 41,760 | 30% |
Fall Chum Salmon
Over the 1993-2002 decade, on average, 77% of the total Alaskan catch of fall chum salmon occurred in the subsistence fishery and 23% were taken by commercial fishers. Stock identification techniques are still being developed for fall chum salmon. Based on preliminary results of genetic stock identification studies and comparisons of spawning abundance throughout the drainage, an assumption that 30 per cent of the Alaskan in-river catch of fall chum salmon is of Canadian-origin, seems reasonable at this time. If true, in recent years, Alaskan fishers annually harvested an average of 41,760 fall chum salmon that originated from the Canadian section of the drainage (Table 4). This represents about 62% of the estimated combined U.S. and Canadian harvest of Yukon River fall chum salmon.