Run Timing, Spawning Distribution, and Inriver Survival of Copper River Sockeye Salmon - 2024–2025

This 2-year telemetry study will estimate the annual spawning distribution, escapement, stock-specific run timing, and inriver survival of sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka returning to the Copper River. These objectives will be accomplished by radiotagging 1,000 sockeye salmon captured in fish wheels near Baird Canyon and tracking their upriver migration to spawning locations using a combination of fixed tracking stations, aerial surveys, and boat surveys. The study design will focus assessments on the 7 major spawning stocks that include the following tributaries/areas: the Chitina, Tonsina, Klutina, Tazlina, and Gulkana Rivers, and the Upper and Lower Copper areas.

Subsistence fisheries span almost the entire length of the Copper River mainstem, and different stocks are prosecuted at different rates depending on their location relative to where the subsistence harvest is occurring. Understanding spawning distribution and timing through the fisheries allows ADF&G to better manage certain stocks and assess the overall health of the sockeye salmon population. For example, knowledge gained from previous run timing and spawning distribution studies have led to regulation changes which were designed to get more fish to the Upper Copper River to satisfy subsistence needs. The higher up a mixed-stock fishery is in the drainage, the fewer stocks it prosecutes, and the more important the upriver stocks become.