2022 Kuskokwim River Salmon Situation Report

Photo courtesy Jonathan Samuelson.

In early October, we released our 2022 Kuskokwim River Salmon Situation Report, which documents the current Chinook, chum, and coho salmon disasters on the Kuskokwim River and their impacts on the 33 subsistence-dependent communities in its watershed. Our aim is to communicate the magnitude of our subsistence salmon declines and articulate the critical need for a new conservation- based, ecosystem-wide management approach, particularly in the marine environment. These multi-year, multi-species salmon declines threaten food, cultural, spiritual, and economic security in the Kuskokwim drainage, and they demand attention and immediate action by all management entities.

While this report focuses on the impacts of these salmon stock collapses in the Kuskokwim drainage, we are acutely aware of other watersheds in Western and Interior Alaska experiencing the same, if not more severe, declines. Moreover, this situation report is not meant to diminish our gratitude for the fish we have been able to harvest along the Kuskokwim. Rather, it is meant to be an honest documentation of the experiences of our communities during salmon shortages so we can act effectively and equitably to maintain our fishing ways of life for future generations.

This report includes preliminary summaries of the 2022 Chinook, chum, and coho salmon seasons; testimonies from Kuskokwim subsistence fishers about how they are experiencing salmon declines; and the negative impacts that Bering Sea-Aleutian Island bycatch and Area M intercept cause to Western Alaska salmon populations.

You can read the 2022 Situation Report here.

Note: We intend to keep refining this report as more data becomes available. This version was last updated on October 3, 2022. We will re-release updated editions of the 2022 Situation Report as we create them.