Calling for Alaskans to come together to help a family member in distress, Gov. Tony Knowles today signed a disaster declaration for Alaskans suffering from severely depressed runs of chinook and chum salmon to the Yukon, Kuskokwim, and Norton Sound watersheds.
Subsistence fishing puts food on the table.
Commercial fishing provides jobs and the cash village families need to buy the basic necessities that cannot be obtained off the land. Salmon are an important part of the cultural life and history of these regions yet, tragically, the salmon returns to these villages this summer are dismal. The Yukon River king salmon run is the poorest since statehood. Even though the commercial harvest was severely limited, biologists are worried that too few chinook will make it upriver to meet basic spawning needs. The return of Yukon summer chums is even worse and the situation on the Kuskokwim and rivers near Nome mirror the crisis on the Yukon.