Posts Near Oscarville Map Timeline

Amid severely restricted fishing on the Kuskokwim River, one bright spot has been abundant sockeye salmon runs at 30,000 fish daily near Bethel.

As chum and chinook salmon numbers dwindle in Western Alaska, salmon bycatch in the pollock industry was a main concern addressed by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, or NPFMC, from Jun…

The vast majority of callers at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting last week called for a reduction in bycatch limits, which they said would help reverse a dramatic trend of salmon declines on the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers.

A decades-long decline in salmon in the Yukon River has reached a crisis this year, forcing harvest closures and prompting emergency shipments of salmon from other regions of Alaska to river residents who are otherwise facing food shortages.

Chum returns are the lowest on record, leaving communities with empty freezers and uncertainty about getting through the winter.

Subsistence families along the Kuskokwim River are cutting open fish to find white balls or white streaks deforming the meat.

Commercial fishing openers are only available to individuals registered as catcher/sellers. On the Kuskokwim, the only one registered is Fran Reich.

Rep. Mary Peltola discusses the challenges facing Alaska's fisheries, including declining salmon populations and the impact on subsistence and commercial fishing, during her visit to Bethel for the Cama-i Dance Festival.