Community-Based Harvest Monitoring (CBHM) Program

The Community-Based Harvest Monitoring (CBHM) program is a multifaceted project that connects communities along the Kuskokwim River with fisheries management agencies and provides these agencies with critically important in-season Chinook (king) salmon harvest information.

Created by BSFA in 2017 and operated by KRITFC since 2021, the CBHM program sends locally hired harvest monitors to boat harbors and fish camps in their Kuskokwim communities to collect harvest information after subsistence salmon harvest opportunities. Since its inception, it has generally been operated in lower Kuskokwim communities, where king salmon harvest rates are historically among the highest of any villages in the watershed.

An overview of how the CBHM program informs in-season management decisions. In 2020, the four lower river villages of Akiak, Kwethluk, Napaskiak, and Tuntutuliak participated in CBHM.

An overview of how the CBHM program informs in-season management decisions. In 2020, the four lower river villages of Akiak, Kwethluk, Napaskiak, and Tuntutuliak participated in CBHM.

Each year before the salmon fishing season starts, KRITFC interviews and hires Harvest Monitors from the communities participating in CBHM. These Harvest Monitors are often Tribal youth, and all have specific local knowledge of their communities and local fisheries and fishing spots. After each king salmon subsistence harvest opportunity, the Harvest Monitors go out into their communities and interview subsistence users who participated in the harvest opportunity. These interviews collect a variety of data, including:

  • Date and location of the interview.

  • Date, time, and location of the fishing trip.

  • Net type and size used.

  • Number of Chinook, chum, and red salmon, whitefish, and sheefish caught during the trip.

  • Age, sex, and length data from Chinook salmon.

  • Comments or concerns subsistence users want to voice to fisheries managers (Harvest Monitors also share fishing information from managers with subsistence fishers).

All of this information is collected within 12 hours after each harvest opportunity and submitted to CBHM staff. Once consolidated, this data is used to produce lower Kuskokwim in-season harvest estimates that help estimate salmon run sizes, run timings, and total subsistence catch in the Kuskokwim. Data from aerial boat counts conducted by USFWS and Bethel area post-harvest data collected by ONC are also included into this data. These harvest estimates are then handed to fisheries managers from KRITFC and USFWS, who use the information during their weekly meetings to decide whether or not to open the river to subsistence fishing, depending on how the run appears to be coming in.

Map of 2022 Harvest Monitors and communities as part of the in-season harvest estimation program.

The CBHM program brings reliable, community-gathered harvest information from Kuskokwim communities immediately to KRITFC and USFWS in-season managers. This is important because until mid-June, the only other sources of salmon indexes on the Kuskokwim – pre-season run forecasts, Bethel sonar data, and Bethel Test Fishery data – are highly uncertain and insufficient. That means that without CBHM information, fisheries managers have little to no solid data to guide their management decisions to provide for adequate spawner escapement and subsistence harvest until the salmon run is almost halfway over. Because Harvest Monitors gather information straight from subsistence users in the most heavily fished region of the Kuskokwim and collect this information immediately after subsistence harvest opportunities, it is not only highly accurate for fisheries managers but also legitimate in the eyes of Kuskokwim community members.

The CBHM program also helps build capacity in Kuskokwim communities. By employing local Tribal community members as Harvest Monitors, the CBHM program provides seasonal employment, connects subsistence users with fisheries managers, and increases community engagement in the fisheries management process.

The information collected through CBHM, coupled with the Indigenous Knowledge of KRITFC In-Season Managers, is invaluable for fisheries management on the Kuskokwim.