Fisheries, Subsistence, and Habitat
Publications Searchable Database
Search Again| Division: | Sport Fish |
| Title: | Eastside set gillnet Chinook salmon harvest composition in Upper Cook Inlet, Alaska, 2019. |
| Author: | Eskelin, A., and A. W. Barclay. |
| Year: | 2020 |
| Report ID: | Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Fishery Data Series No. 20-06, 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 2019. Mixed-stock analysis (MSA) was conducted on tissue samples collected to represent harvest by date and area. Reported harvest was 2,245 Chinook salmon, with an estimated composition of 1,458 (65%) Kenai River mainstem, 714 (32%) Kasilof River mainstem, 49 (2%) Kenai River tributaries, and 25 (1%) Cook Inlet other fish. Kenai River mainstem fish have composed on average 71% 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 2019 was 613 fish (27% of total harvest and 60% of large fish harvest). Large Kenai River mainstem fish have composed on average 35% of the total harvest since 2010 ranging from 23% in 2013 to 63% in 2017. Large Kenai River mainstem fish have composed on average 69% of the large fish harvest ranging from 60% in 2010 and 2019 to 79% in 2017. Age composition of the total harvest in 2019 was 14% age-1.1 (jacks), 33% age-1.2, 42% age-1.3, 11% age-1.4, and less than 1% age-1.5 fish. The percentage of age-1.4 fish (11%) in the harvest was the lowest observed since sampling began in 1987. Sex composition of the Chinook salmon harvest was 74% males and 26% females. The average mid eye to tail fork length was 715 mm in 2019, the 4th lowest ever observed. |
| 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. |