Sockeye rush to the Chilkoot, slow to reach the Chilkat

After a slow start, the Chilkoot sockeye run has seen an impressive increase in the last two weeks. At the same time, high water levels on the Tsirku River have slowed salmon migration to Chilkat Lake. 

Across the state of Alaska sockeye runs have been fairly weak. But those numbers are starting to increase in the Upper Lynn Canal.

Haines’ Fish and Game biologist Wyatt Rhea-Fournier says sockeye came rushing into the Chilkoot on July 21st.

“We had on Sunday our second biggest day since we put in the weir. We had over 13,500 fish come through on Sunday, and that followed a Saturday where we had over 8,700 fish. Those two combined together for a huge weekend of almost 22,000 fish. And that helped us get up and over the lower end of our escapement goal range.”

The lower escapement goal was 38,000. As of Thursday morning, escapement had reached 42,500. Rhea-Fournier says he is still hoping for more fish to ensure a strong return in the future.

“Although we’re doing good and we’ve got to over 42,000, we’re really trying to get more towards 50 to 60,000 and possibly even a little bit more. Especially considering some of the weaknesses in the other sockeye systems across the state, which would indicate poor marine survival. We want to make sure we have a healthy spawning population in Chilkoot.”

The Chilkat side is another story. While Chilkoot sockeye come in big pulses, the Chilkat run is elongated over several months.

“Chilkat fish will start coming in as early as June and will continue to come in as late as end of September, early October. So it’s actually one of the later Sockeye runs in the state, and our escapement goal there is bigger because it is more productive,” Rhea-Fournier says.

The Chilkat Lake escapement goal is 70,000 to 150,000. So far this year’s return has been a bit slower. That’s due to hot weather increasing glacier melt, which has raised water levels on the Tsirku River.  

“As the Chilkat Lake flows out it flows into the Tsirku,” Rhea-Fournier says. “But when the Tsirku rises really high it actually begins to push back towards the lakes. We’ve actually had a couple reversals this year, where instead of water flowing out of Chilkat Lake, water is flowing back into Chilkat Lake. That slows down fish migration quite a bit,” 

Rhea-Fournier says that about 25 percent of the run has come through the Chilkat so far. Although the numbers are lower than average for this time of year, he says it’s still too early to assess the run’s strength at this point.

“You know once we get about a third of the run through, then we can start making decisions and saying this is pretty strong or this is pretty weak, and right now we’re not quite there. And we’re a little bit behind our average of where we would like to be. Right now we only have 17,000 fish that have made it into that lake, and like I said we are hoping to get well over 70,000. So we’ve got quite a bit to go on the Chilkat side, and that is why we have some of the management decisions in place for the commercial fishery.”

On July 21 Chilkat Inlet’s subsistence fishery opened between Letnikof Point and Glacier Point. On July 28, all of Chilkat Inlet north of Glacier Point will open to subsistence fishing.