Takotna River Salmon Run Timing and Abundance

The Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, assisted by the Takotna Tribal Council and local fish technicians, is proposing to continue a project to monitor the escapement of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and chum salmon (O. keta), returning to the Takotna River, Alaska. A resistance board weir has been used from as early as late June to mid-August to collect abundance and run timing of both Chinook and chum salmon. Data collected at the weir, including daily passage and age, sex, and length data, supports management of the salmon fisheries that occur in the Kuskokwim River drainage. In addition, data collected at Takotna River weir is the only headwaters tributary weir input into the Kuskokwim River Chinook salmon run reconstruction, which assesses run performance of Chinook salmon drainage wide. Moreover, the Takotna River weir project is the only completely community run weir in Alaska, providing unique opportunities to build Tribal community capacity. The project site also provides a platform to explore emerging spawner assessment technologies, including environmental DNA collection and video-based counting towers, as well as to link with projects to establish genetic baselines. The overarching project goal is to continue a long-term ground-based project that will adequately index salmon escapement to the headwater tributaries of the Kuskokwim River. By continuing the only long-term weir data set dedicated to evaluating salmon escapement to a Kuskokwim River headwater tributary, including continuing the time series of environmental data, this project provides local residents, researchers, and managers with data and insights for understanding the local impacts of climate change and fishery management practices.

The proposed projects objectives are:

1. To determine annual escapement levels and biological information of vulnerable Takotna River

salmon stocks, including Chinook and chum salmon.

2. To determine the efficacy of downstream management on Takotna River stocks (i.e., escapement

data inform the drainage-wide Chinook salmon run reconstruction and measure the success of the

front-end closures designed to conserve first-run headwaters Chinook salmon).

3. To determine the ways in which environmental conditions (e.g., water temperature, water levels)

affect the health of Takotna River salmon stocks.

4. To analyze data and identify trends in salmon escapements and age, sex, and length compositions

through time.

5. To determine steps to continue building community capacity for and ownership of a long-term

weir project.