Commercial Salmon Fisheries
Taku River Fishwheels - Sockeye Counts

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Fish wheels on the Taku River are an essential platform for the Chinook, sockeye, and coho salmon mark-recapture program, which provides inseason and postseason escapement estimates. Because fish wheel catchability can be affected by factors such as water level, fish size, abundance, daily spin time, etc., daily fish wheel catches do not necessarily have a meaningful relationship with upriver abundance. In 2023, fish wheel operation protocols were changed (fish wheels operations are now 8 hours a day instead of 16 hours a day) so catch numbers are not comparable to previous years. Questions related to the Taku River fish wheel project can be directed to Jeff Williams at (907) 465-8251.

Bilateral mark-recapture data for Taku River sockeye salmon through day 3 of statistical week (SW) 33 (August 11) includes 879 tags released, 19,330 fish inspected, and 202 recoveries. Bayesian Time Stratified Population Analysis Software (BTSPAS) was used to generate an inriver run estimate of sockeye salmon past Canyon Island as of August 11, and as per Transboundary Panel recommendations, the estimate was reduced by 15% to account for tag dropout and size selectivity of gear.

Current estimates are as follows:

Inriver Run Estimate: 75,362 (SD = 7,286)
Canadian Harvest to Date: 19,330
Current Escapement: 56,032
Projected Inriver Run: 93,502

U.S. Harvest to Date: 42,845
Projected Terminal Run: 140,732

Preseason Forecast (terminal run): 173,000
10-year Average Terminal Run: 189,000

The Taku River sockeye salmon escapement goal range is 40,000 to 75,000 wild fish, with a management objective of 58,000 wild fish.

Chilkoot Lake Weir | Chilkat Lake Weir | Hugh Smith Weir | Redoubt Lake Weir (Sockeye)
Situk (Lower) Weir (Chinook) | Situk (Lower) Weir (Sockeye) | Taku River Fishwheels (Sockeye)
Taku River Fishwheels (Coho)