Alaska Department of Fish and Game officials have released volume two of Chinook News, with updates on the agency’s work on the Chinook Salmon Research initiative. The publication can be found online at http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg= chinooknews.main.
The winter edition provides overviews of stocks and research projects of 12 important Chinook river systems and features articles on marine sampling in the Kodiak and Westward regions, Cook Inlet and Southeast Alaska. The 16-page report also highlights initiative funded environmental and ecological studies done in collaboration with the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
The goal, says Fish and Game Commissioner Sam Cotten, is to not only share what the state is learning, but to fully engage the public in the process. Questions and comments on the Chinook Salmon Research Initiative can be sent to dfg.chinooknews@alaska.gov.
Alaska has hundreds of Chinook salmon stocks, and to better understand their productivity across a wide geographic range, 12 stocks were chosen as indicators of the overall health and production of Alaska’s Chinook salmon. These indicator stocks provide the bulk of Alaska’s wild Chinook salmon production and are vitally important to the subsistence, cultural and economic sustainability of nearby rural and urban communities, the report notes.
During their 2013 and 2014 sessions, the Alaska Legislature provided $15 million in support for the initiative, funding 35 Chinook salmon projects in 2014. According to Ed Jones, ADF&G’s Chinook salmon research initiative coordinator, these research projects are increasing the state’s confidence in estimating adult spawning abundance. Current efforts will ultimately take years of effort to provide a sufficient time series of run statistics useful for production and trend analyses, Jones said. Nevertheless, the state’s investments are worthy because, lacking information, fisheries managers often let more fish escape than may be necessary to sustain the population, he said.
The winter edition provides overviews of stocks and research projects of 12 important Chinook river systems and features articles on marine sampling in the Kodiak and Westward regions, Cook Inlet and Southeast Alaska. The 16-page report also highlights initiative funded environmental and ecological studies done in collaboration with the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
The goal, says Fish and Game Commissioner Sam Cotten, is to not only share what the state is learning, but to fully engage the public in the process. Questions and comments on the Chinook Salmon Research Initiative can be sent to dfg.chinooknews@alaska.gov.
Alaska has hundreds of Chinook salmon stocks, and to better understand their productivity across a wide geographic range, 12 stocks were chosen as indicators of the overall health and production of Alaska’s Chinook salmon. These indicator stocks provide the bulk of Alaska’s wild Chinook salmon production and are vitally important to the subsistence, cultural and economic sustainability of nearby rural and urban communities, the report notes.
During their 2013 and 2014 sessions, the Alaska Legislature provided $15 million in support for the initiative, funding 35 Chinook salmon projects in 2014. According to Ed Jones, ADF&G’s Chinook salmon research initiative coordinator, these research projects are increasing the state’s confidence in estimating adult spawning abundance. Current efforts will ultimately take years of effort to provide a sufficient time series of run statistics useful for production and trend analyses, Jones said. Nevertheless, the state’s investments are worthy because, lacking information, fisheries managers often let more fish escape than may be necessary to sustain the population, he said.