Here today, we've looked at our fish wheel on the Taku River, where the fish are tagged and recaptured upstream, and the market capture estimate of escapement is generated. Elsewhere in the state, there are sonar programs that are conducted generally on large muddy or glacial systems. Examples of that would be on the Yukon and Copper River. Also there are counting wheels where fish are counted. These are typically on smaller creeks that are clear water systems.
Aerial surveys are a major way of monitoring statements.
So first thing is, you have to have enough fish into the creeks. Then we also monitor the harvests, and so we're out interviewing fishermen, we're tabulating what the catches are, what the catch rates are, we are comparing that to historical data, give us an idea of run strength through our fisheries. But we don't just look at numbers when we are out on the fishery, looking for catch information. We sample the catch for biological information. And it turns out in a given stock, male pink salmon tend to come back earlier than the female pink salmon.