In-Season Management
Kuskokwim Federal Waters
During the salmon fishing season – roughly early May through August – KRITFC In-Season Managers and staff meet regularly with the management team at Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge to discuss the state of Kuskokwim salmon returns and decide whether or not to open federal waters of the Kuskokwim River (from the mouth to Aniak) to subsistence fishing. These decisions are made as co-managers under our 2016 Memorandum of Understanding, and as guided by our joint Salmon Management Strategy.
Several sources of data factor into our decisions, including:
Traditional Knowledge and local observations from KRITFC In-Season Managers and other rural subsistence users, which help inform assessment of run strength and run timing.
Kuskokwim River Sonar Project, a relatively new and important in-season indicator of run strength and run timing, especially for Chinook, chum, and sockeye salmon. In recent years, the sonar, located between Bethel and Kwethluk, has extended its operations to cover most of the coho salmon run through the lower Kuskokwim.
Community-Based Harvest Data from harvest opportunities of a subset of lower river communities provides critical information about harvests during openings, including species ratios and catch per unit effort. Immediately after a harvest opportunity, CBHM program data provides information about the salmon abundance during that harvest opportunity. This community-based information is particularly valuable because it is provided directly by harvesters and therefore is seen as highly credible.
Bethel Test Fishery and Aniak Test Fishery projects are indices of run strength and run timing. While they provide general categorical (high, medium, and low) measures of abundance, they are imprecise in-season indicators of the total run size (only available post-season). Since 2025, Bethel Test Fishery is no longer in operation.
Our In-Season Managers know the gravity of these weekly in-season meetings. Like all of our Commissioners, each of them comes from a subsistence fishing community on the Kuskokwim, and each of them depends on subsistence harvest opportunities to catch enough fish to feed their families. When the fish are in the river, they want to fish as they were taught by their parents and Elders. However, our In-Season Managers also recognize the urgent need for conservation closures while the king salmon runs are declined in order to help the kings reach their spawning grounds to rebuild our fish populations.
Finding the balance between providing subsistence harvest opportunities and protecting salmon is highly challenging; we cannot understate our gratitude for the wisdom, emotional labor, and perseverance our In-Season Managers bring to the federal management table all season long.
“Every decision we make as In-Season Managers means caring for the whole river, and its drainage, its tributaries, its people, the people’s survival and food security, and the whole Yup’ik [and Athabaskan] culture. ”
Weekly KRITFC-USFWS meetings are not open to the public. However, subsistence fishers who want to get involved in management or speak with managers can:
Call into KRITFC’s weekly river-wide teleconferences. These public, toll-free teleconferences are a time to ask questions about regulations and fishing opportunities, share updates from your fish camp, and voice your comments or concerns to KRITFC managers.
If you live in the lower river communities of Akiak, Kwethluk, Bethel, Napaskiak, Napakiak, Nunapitchuk, Tuntutuliak, or Eek, you can speak with Harvest Monitors if you are selected for an interview through the CBHM program. Harvest Monitors will collect your comments about fishing and relay them to fisheries managers. They can also answer questions about regulations and fishing opportunities. This is a way to become more engaged in the fisheries management and monitoring process on the Kuskokwim.
Call the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge Fish Info Line at 907-543-3151 to hear a recorder of the latest federal fishing announcement, or call the Refuge at 907-302-5144.
Contact KRITFC’s office at 907-545-7388 (call or text) or info@kritfc.org.
Listen or call into Fish Talk on KYUK, held throughout the salmon fishing season.
Kuskokwim State Waters
The Alaska Department of Fish & Game managed state waters of the Kuskokwim watershed. When USFWS-KRITFC co-management jurisdiction is in effect in federal waters, this means ADF&G is responsible for subsistence fishery management in the Kuskokwim Bay and from Aniak upriver to the headwaters.
ADF&G does not have a co-management agreement with KRITFC. Their management decisions are made with input by the Kuskokwim River Salmon Management Working Group (KRSMWG), an advisory body. KRSMWG meetings occur weekly through the majority of the salmon season and are open to the public.