Grim forecast for Yukon River salmon run

Biologists are predicting another disastrous salmon run on the Yukon River this summer.  

Pre-season meetings are underway in Alaska, where fishery managers are considering regulations intended to protect chinook salmon returning to the Yukon to spawn.   

The Alaska Board of Fish has voted to allow dip net fishing on the lower Yukon and Kuskokwim River systems to all subsistence harvesters.

They’ll be able to take sockeye and chum salmon but they'll have to release chinook back to the river unharmed.

Orville Huntington is one of the board members promoting the idea.

“It's obviously very hard times out there and regulations are confusing enough and I think it is needed and it will conserve King salmon and allow some very important catch during a time of year when it is good to put fish away.”

Yukon members of the Yukon Salmon Sub Committee are in Anchorage today for meetings with their Alaskan counterparts.