Alaska Puts Limits On Its Kings

Baffled by the evaporation of an anticipated record run of Kenai River king salmon, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game ordered trophy-only fishing on the state’s most famous stream to begin Tuesday.

Anglers may only keep kings over 52 inches - fish in the 60- to 70-pound or larger class. Anything smaller will have to be released immediately.

This is grim news for Alaska’s most famous salmon stream, and the producer of world record kings of more than 90 pounds.

Few fish are expected to be kept with the new regulations in place, according to the Anchorage Daily News. Past studies have shown that more than 90 percent of the fish released after being caught survive to spawn.

With catch rates high and the number of returning kings low, biologists were forced to curtail fishing.

Only about 8,000 kings had entered the river as of Friday, and anglers had caught almost half of them. Biologists were optimistic that the optimum spawning goal of 9,000 kings would be met.

The big question is what happened to the record return biologists expected. Before the season, they forecast 20,000 to 44,000 kings would enter the river.

The strongest early run on record is 27,000 fish in 1986.

No one knows what the missed forecast for the early run means for the predictions of a record number of fish for the late run.

Part of the explanation for the first-run problems may rest with the growing fishery in Cook Inlet off Deep Creek, where there was excellent trolling for king salmon into June.

Or possibly, the Kenai run timing may be different this year. The return of red salmon to the Russian River, a major Kenai tributary in the Cooper Landing area, has come so early that the fish are in the process of beating anglers to the fishing grounds.

The Copper River is getting so many red and king salmon back that biologists can’t believe it, and all the rivers off Cook Inlet - except for the Kenai - have seen large, healthy returns of kings.

Salmon season ends

Because anglers were so successful fishing for salmon in the North Fork and mainstem of the Clearwater River, an emergency order ended the season Sunday.

“This is the most exciting fishing in the Clearwater River since 1978,” said Idaho Department of Fish and Game fisheries chief Steve Huffaker before the termination order. Fish and Game director Steve Mealey ordered it shut down Friday when it became apparent the projected allowable harvest of 650 fish would be reached.

Huffaker said the season could be reopened if estimated numbers of chinook continue to increase. The number of hatchery salmon returning in excess of what can be used in hatchery programs has been much greater than preseason estimates.

There also appears to be a surplus for the salmon fishery in Idaho’s Little Salmon River, where fishing action has begun to improve. The season will continue through July 6 unless creel census determines that the allowable surplus has been caught.

American Indians will continue to fish until their quota, equal to that in the sport fishery, has been met.

Plant species threatened

The Interior Department’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has listed the golden paintbrush, a grassland plant found in western Washington and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, as threatened under the Federal Endangered Species Act.

The golden paintbrush, which grows up to 12 inches, has brilliant golden-yellow flowers. It grows at elevations below 300 feet from Thurston County in Washington, north through the Puget Sound region to Victoria, British Columbia.

Historically, the plant grew from the Willamette Valley in Oregon north to Vancouver Island. However, the plant is now extinct in Oregon.

Golden paintbrush is threatened by habitat loss through succession of grassland to shrub and forest habitat and by conversion of habitat to agricultural, residential and commercial use. Collection by people visiting recreation sites, trampling, grazing by livestock and browsing by rabbits and deer also are threats at some of the plant’s 10 sites.