Kodiak and Alaska Peninsula/Aleutian Islands Management Area
Fishing Research - Steelhead

This research project, initiated in 1993, is designed to refine chinook salmon escapement goals for the Karluk and Ayakulik rivers. The ultimate goal of this project is to use estimates of escapement and return, by brood year, to estimate underlying stock-recruit relationships, and the number of spawners corresponding to maximum sustained yield (SMSY). Escapement goals will be developed based on these estimates.

Objectives

Current objectives of the chinook research study consist of the following:

Sockeye Salmon

• Estimate SMSY for the Karluk and Ayakulik rivers such that, after 12 years of stock recruit (S-R) data are obtained (following the 2007 season), the probability is less than 10% that the true SMSY is no more than 25% below the point estimate, and the probability is less than 10% that the true SMSY is no more than 100% above the point estimate. Tasks associated with achieving this objective include
  • Count chinook salmon migrating upstream through the weirs on the Karluk and Ayakulik rivers.
  • Tally the commercial harvest of chinook salmon returning to the Karluk and Ayakulik rivers.
  • Estimate the total sport harvest of chinook salmon in the Karluk and Ayakulik rivers.
  • Estimate the age and sex composition and length distribution of the inriver return of chinook salmon through the weirs on the Karluk and Ayakulik rivers.
• Annually census the fishing effort by sport anglers walking or traveling downstream by vessel past the weir on the Karluk and Ayakulik Rivers from late May to mid July.
• Annually census the harvest and catch of chinook salmon by anglers who walk or travel by vessel downstream past the weir on the Karluk and Ayakulik Rivers from late May to mid July.