The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced a series of closures this week for salmon fishing at Saltery Cove and Saltery Creek.
Saltery Cove will close to sockeye salmon subsistence fishing starting on Thursday, July 30, according to one announcement.
A separate announcement restricted sport fishermen to a bag limit of two fish per day instead of five on Saltery Creek, also starting on Thursday, July 30.
The news comes as sockeye salmon are returning to Saltery Creek in the lowest numbers since 2020. Geoff Spalinger, the area management biologist for commercial salmon fishing at Kodiak’s ADF&G office, said Saltery sockeye have been regularly meeting or exceeding their escapement goal of 15,000-35,000 fish over the past several years. As a result, ADF&G started out this year with a smaller subsistence closure area.
“Right now, we’re projecting to not meet that lower end of the goal," Spalinger said. "So we’re increasing those closed waters back to where they normally would be.”
Salmon escapement numbers across the archipelago have been a mixed bag so far this summer. The Buskin River, one of the most popular fishing spots accessible from Kodiak’s road system, closed to all sockeye fishing last month because of a poor run. And the Pasagshak River, another popular road-system spot, has seen just 1,358 fish come through as of July 27, compared to more than three times that many fish at the same time last year.
Tyler Polum, a sportfish biologist with ADF&G in Kodiak, said the slow returns on Buskin River, Pasagshak River, and Saltery Creek are probably the result of this year’s hot and sunny summer, which makes it more difficult for salmon to travel upstream. He said a bit of rain might bump returns, and restrictions on the Saltery could change.
“I think folks have been pretty disappointed in the red runs locally here," Polum said. "So we’ve been trying to keep as much fishing opportunity as we can. We’ll wait a week or so and there could just as easily be another emergency order next week, either to close it, or we could restore the limit.”
But he said they would need to see a pretty big jump in order to restore it. Spalinger said it isn’t all bad news though, at least for commercial fishing.
“The Ayakulik River, on the other hand, had a really strong return," Spalinger said. "That was one of the largest escapements we’ve ever seen. And then in Alitak, Upper Station’s early run had a strong return. So the fishing was overall poor, but there were a few bright spots.”
As early run sockeye season winds down, fishermen have turned their attention towards pinks, returns for which were forecasted to be low this year.
“So far, overall, it’s been fairly weak, kind of as projected," Spalinger said. "However, we are seeing a few systems are improving, and we’re starting to see a little bit more fish. We’ll keep monitoring the harvest, and then hopefully we’ll see an improvement in escapement as well.”
For sportfishing, Polum said pink returns have been good so far. He said they’ll be putting their coho weir into the Buskin River next week.
