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Kenai closed to king salmon fishing; worst early run on record

It was nonstop fishing excitement on Alaska's Kenai River. (Jim Kershner / The Spokesman-Review)
By Rich Landers richl@spokesman.com(509) 459-5508
It was nonstop fishing excitement on Alaska's Kenai River. (Jim Kershner / The Spokesman-Review)
It was nonstop fishing excitement on Alaska's Kenai River. (Jim Kershner / The Spokesman-Review)

SALMON FISHING — It’s a bad year for that salmon fishing dream trip to some portions of Alaska.

Record low king runs have forced the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on Friday to close king salmon sport fishing seasons in some rivers including the fabled Kenai River.

Returns were expected to be low, and they’ve been worse. So far only about 4,000 early-run kings have passed the in-river sonar counter. That makes the early Kenai run the worst on record.  Another run follows.

Read this story from the Alaska  Dispatch regarding the tension building between sport and commercial fishermen over who’s bearing the burden of king salmon conservation.

Read this story originating from the Alaska Daily News exploring the causes for the decline of these famous salmon fisheries.

* This story was originally published as a post from the blog "Outdoors Blog." Read all stories from this blog