Genetic Stock Composition of Copper River Commercial Chinook Salmon Harvests

This project will genetically analyze Chinook salmon tissue samples from the Copper River District commercial drift gillnet fishery to estimate the stock-specific harvest of Chinook salmon to improve our understanding of stock productivity. This information will help ensure that escapement goals are being met and will assist in the management of Chinook salmon runs that support subsistence fisheries in the Copper River drainage.

Information provided by this study will be useful for reconstructing runs, building accurate brood tables to define escapement goals, and refining management by identifying temporal harvest patterns of local and nonlocal stocks. Most of the harvests are from mixtures of stocks returning to a variety of tributaries in the drainage, so the exploitation and productivity of any given stock is not well known. This lack of knowledge compromises both stock protection from overharvest and attempts to sustain productivity of Chinook stocks. As an example, during low run size years, if the commercial fishery overharvests in the early season, upriver fishery managers can be compelled to make restrictions in upriver subsistence fisheries to ensure spawning escapement criterion are met. Knowledge of specific stock timing can assist commercial managers in analyzing harvest levels with regards to stock and regulate the fishery to allow sufficient numbers of Chinook salmon into the river to support both subsistence and spawning escapement needs.