Hatcheries in Alaska are usually in the business of providing stable fish harvests for commercial, sport, and subsistence fishers alike. But a hatchery in Kodiak is about to embark on a new venture: the rehabilitation of a crashing Chinook salmon run on the southwest side of the island.
At the turn of the century, the Karluk River, which runs by the village of Karluk, was booming with king salmon—also called Chinook. And people traveled from all over the world to catch them.
“A lot of folks still remember the, they call it the mighty Karluk river," said Tyler Polum, a Kodiak area sportfish biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. "In the early 2000s, it was so popular that there was a limited use during the king salmon season. You had to get a permit to go down there.”
The population has since tanked, and catch and keep sportfishing for kings has been closed on the river since 2007. Subsistence fishing for kings was banned the year after.
But the Karluk’s status might soon change. A project that will use Kodiak hatcheries to rehabilitate the Karluk river Chinook salmon run has officially gotten a greenlight after almost ten years of planning. It will be the first project of its kind in the state.
Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang sent an official approval letter to the Kodiak Regional Aquaculture Association (KRAA), which operates both Kodiak hatcheries, on May 1.
Chinook salmon across the state are struggling, and the Karluk kings are no exception. The run has not consistently met its escapement goal for the last two decades. Last year, only 93 Chinook returned to the river–the year before, it was just 76.
Kyle Woolever, the research manager with KRAA, said the low number of Karluk kings is the reason the river is the guinea pig for the project.
“It's time to do something," he said. "And with such small returns that we’re seeing on the river, we need to make it an immediate because they may not be there next year at all.”
KRAA's plan is to collect eggs from the returning Karluk Chinook this summer and bring the eggs back to Pillar Creek Hatchery, which is closer to town. They’ll raise them there until they are smolt before returning them back to the river, and repeat the process over the next few years.
Woolever said the plan differs from regular hatchery operations in two big ways. They plan to spawn the Karluk salmon in the wild and release only the offspring of those wild-spawned fish. And he said the hatchery is doing the project for the sake of rehabilitating the wild king run, rather than to boost fish harvest.
Scientists are pretty sure that the Karluk kings’ decline has to do with the warming river. Chinook salmon usually return five years after they’re born. Polum said the conditions in the river in 2019 and 2020 were unusually hot and dry, which caused the subsequent bad runs in 2024 and 2025. But he said the salmon returning this year were born in a cooler and wetter summer.
“While we don’t expect to have a lot of king salmon, the hope is that we have something significantly more than 76 or 93," Polum said. "There’s a short window, because the returns from these low returns these last several years will be coming back.”
The project isn’t going to be without its challenges. The Karluk river’s remote location makes it difficult to get equipment out there, and chartering flights to the river is expensive. And Woolever said they don’t know how the river might change in the next few years. But he’s hopeful that their project will have a positive impact.
“We don't want to take a dismal approach," he said. "We're doing this for a reason. If we didn't believe it would work, we wouldn’t be doing it.”
Woolever hopes that the project could have broader impacts too. Other Chinook populations, like those in the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers, are facing different threats than the Karluk run. But if the hatchery’s gambit is successful, Woolever said it could help create a model for Chinook populations across Alaska.
Polum said sportfishers shouldn’t bank on fishing the Karluk anytime soon. But, with luck, he said fishermen could one day get another chance at catching a Karluk king.
