Chinook Salmon Research Initiative
Karluk River Chinook Salmon

Karluk River Juvenile Chinook Salmon Abundance

Spring juvenile Chinook salmon coded-wire tagging project. Smolt abundance studies on Karluk River Chinook have not been conducted previously at large scales. One previous study was a trapping survey of the drainage from Karluk Lake to Karluk Lagoon that sought to document rearing habitat used by juvenile Chinook and estimate their abundance. The study identified the lower Karluk River, below the portage, as the primary rearing area for Chinook, but few Chinook salmon were captured and results were somewhat inconclusive. This study will assess the viability of a future coded wire tagging project on juvenile Chinook salmon in the Karluk River drainage in 2014. The project seeks to determine if enough juvenile Chinook salmon can be caught to warrant a coded wire tagging project. Starting in late April or as soon as weather permits, a crew of three technicians will deploy baited minnow traps over a one-month period, focusing on the lower Karluk River from the Portage to the Lagoon. If successful, results from this work will allow for detailed smolt abundance estimates, and when coupled with adult return information, detailed estimates of marine survival.

Karluk River near Kodiak

$80,000

2014

Juvenile abundance

Juvenile

Karluk River Chinook salmon