Middle Kuskokwim River Chinook and Chum Salmon In-Season Assessment

The Native Village of Napaimute, in partnership with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), proposes to operate two Chinook and chum salmon monitoring projects for the Middle Kuskokwim River in 2025-2027. This is a continuing project that was previously funded by FWS between 2020-2023. If funded, NVN will operate a test fishery at Aniak providing managers with in-season runs strength and species composition information and operate the Salmon River Weir to estimate Chinook and chum salmon escapement, collecting age sex, and length data. Napaimute has been operating the Aniak Test Fishery successfully indexing Chinook, chum, and sockeye salmon abundance since 2015 providing Fisheries Managers with the daily counts and species ratios to be used for in-season management purposes. Likewise, the Salmon River Weir has been operated by Napaimute since 2015 observing the passage of Chinook, chum and sockeye salmon in sufficient numbers to generate reliable estimates of total escapement into the Salmon River, except for one year when high water destroyed the weir. In the following year, the weir was rebuilt and relocated to a site that is less prone to flooding. All of the infrastructure is in place and in good condition ready to implement both projects in 2025. To further enhance data collection at the weir, we have been collaborating with WSU Researchers to install a camera-based system to monitor fish passage to explore new more reliable cost-effective possibilities for monitoring escapement in remote settings. The Salmon River due to its size and water clarity is a good candidate for such a pilot project to test and develop this methodology.

The objectives for the ATF project are to provide Fisheries Managers with timely information to bases conservations actions on. The specific task we propose to accomplish this are:

1. Calculate daily catch per unit effort (CPUE) of adult salmon from June 1st until July 15th

2. Calculate cumulative CPUE as an index of run timing of adult salmon species

3. Collect sex/length data on all Chinook mortalities

4. Mark all healthy released Chinook to estimate recapture rates

5. Calculate a daily catch ratio of each salmon species

6. Transmit data on a daily basis to Fisheries Managers

7. To the greatest extent practicable distribute daily catch to local communities



The objectives for the SRW project are to collect age-sex-length (ASL) data from Chinook, chum salmon, and monitor passage sufficiently to estimate their escapement into the Salmon River. The specific task we propose to accomplish this are:

1. Operate and maintain an adult salmon counting weir and field camp on the Salmon River

from July 1st through August 15th.

2. Observe and record daily passage sufficient to estimate escapement of Chinook and Chum

salmon into the Salmon River

3. Transmit fish passage and ASL data to ADF&G daily

4. Collect data on the age, sex and length of salmon in the Salmon River

5. Facilitate deployment and operation of a camera based monitoring system