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.

Taku Management Model

This is the last inseason estimate, we are now in coho salmon management.

Note: The capture-recapture estimate is based on inseason information; as the season progresses the estimate will become more reliable because more data will be available to inform the estimate. Early season, the terminal run estimate is primarily based on a projection using the 10-year average fish wheels run timing and by the end of season it is mostly based on real-time data.

Bayesian Time Stratified Population Analysis Software
Current inriver run 61,113
Current escapement 56,344
Projected inriver run 119,628
Projected U.S. commercial catch Taku fish 58,296
Projected personal use catch Taku fish 1,500
Terminal Run 179,424

Bilateral capture-recapture data for Taku River sockeye salmon through day 3 of statistical week (SW) 33 (August 15) includes 1,348 tags released, 14,019 fish inspected, and 130 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 15. Per recommendations of the Transboundary Panel, the inriver run estimate was reduced by 13% to 119,950 (SD =12,237) sockeye salmon to account for tag dropout and size selectivity of gear. After accounting for Canadian harvest, the current escapement estimate is 105,931 sockeye salmon. Using the recent 10-year average, 86% of the sockeye salmon run is past Canyon Island by August 15 so after accounting for U.S. harvest this week's estimate projects to a final inriver run of 139,886 sockeye salmon. Adding the projected U.S. terminal harvest of 39,532 to the projected inriver run yields a terminal run estimate of 179,418 sockeye salmon. This compares with a 2023 preseason terminal run forecast of 178,000 fish and a ten-year average terminal run size of 155,000 fish.

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

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