Koyukuk has two residents with commercial permits. Birch is harvested and dried for the baskets that will turn with the river's current and scoop up the fish. Subsistence fishing is usually done by seining when the river is open. While the river is frozen up, Athabaskans set up fish nets under the ice by opening two holes in the ice, and threading a net under the ice. For more information about the state Salmon Project, click here .
Silver salmon is cut so that salmon can dry.
It will be transferred to a smoke house where it will be smoked with a low alder fire for a few days, the first cooking. Pieces will be packaged and frozen. Later, these will be removed from the freezer and cooked in the oven. Close up of a freshly cut piece of silver salmon, ready for the smokehouse. These fish are caught, cut, and hung till dry.