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Division: Sport Fish
Title: Eastside set gillnet Chinook salmon harvest composition in Upper Cook Inlet, Alaska, 2018, with large fish composition estimates for 2010–2014.
Author: Eskelin, A., and A. W. Barclay.
Year: 2019
Report ID: Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Fishery Data Series No. 19-26, Anchorage.
Abstract: Chinook salmon were sampled for genetic tissue and age, sex, and length from the Upper Cook Inlet Eastside set gillnet commercial fishery in 2018. Mixed-stock analysis (MSA) was conducted on tissue samples collected to represent harvest by date and area. Reported harvest was 2,312 Chinook salmon, with an estimated composition of 1,710 (75%) Kenai River mainstem, 428 (19%) Kasilof River mainstem, 77 (3%) Kenai River tributaries, and 69 (3%) Cook Inlet Other fish, and 28 fish not represented in the MSA. Kenai River mainstem fish have composed on average 72% of the harvest since 2010, ranging from 61% in 2014 to 79% in 2017. Estimated harvest of large (75 cm mid eye to tail fork and longer) Kenai River mainstem Chinook salmon in 2018 was 555 fish (24% of total harvest and 77% of total large fish harvest). A retrospective MSA by size, time, and area was conducted on tissue samples collected in 2010, 2011, 2013, and 2014. Including these results and those from 2015 to 2018, large Kenai River mainstem fish have composed on average 36% of the total harvest since 2010 ranging from 23% in 2013 to 63% in 2017. Large Kenai River mainstem fish have composed on average 70% of the total large fish harvest ranging from 60% in 2010 to 79% in 2017. Age composition of all fish in 2018 was 13% age-1.1 (jacks), 54% age-1.2, 12% age-1.3, 21% age-1.4, and less than 1% age-1.5 fish. The combined percentage of jacks and age-1.2 fish (67% in total) was the highest observed and the percentage of age-1.3 fish (12%) was the lowest observed since sampling began in 1987. Sex composition of the Chinook salmon harvest was 82% males and 18% females. Average mid eye to tail fork length was 685 mm, the 2nd lowest ever observed and lowest since 2013.
Keywords: Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, Upper Cook Inlet, UCI, Kenai River, Kasilof River, late run, mixed-stock analysis, MSA, ASL, ESSN, Eastside set gillnet commercial fishery.