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) 29 (July 15) includes 460 tags released, 3,856 fish inspected, and 38 recoveries. Bayesian Time Stratified Population Analysis Software (BTSPAS) was used to generate an inriver run estimate of sockeye salmon past Canyon Island as of July 15, 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: 35,215 (SD = 7,422)
Canadian Harvest to Date: 3,856
Current Escapement: 31,359
Projected Inriver Run: 121,159

U.S. Harvest to Date: 24,662
Projected Terminal Run: 203,418

Preseason Forecast (terminal run): 182,000
10-year Average Terminal Run: 180,000

The Taku River sockeye salmon escapement goal range is 40,000 to 75,000 fish, with a management objective of 58,000 wild fish. Attached is the Taku Management Model (TMM) for SW29, which provides details on the current projections.

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)