For the last decade, chinook salmon, commonly known in Alaska as “king salmon,” has been in decline, a trend that has stumped researchers and biologists across the state as to what is causing the salmon’s low returns.
For the last decade, chinook salmon, commonly known in Alaska as “king salmon,” has been in decline, a trend that has stumped researchers and biologists across the state as to what is causing the salmon’s low returns. Although it is commonly thought that ocean conditions are the culprit for the chinook’s demise, a recent study led by University of Alaska researchers from UAA and UAF in collaboration with Cook Inletkeeper, a community-based nonprofit organization combining advocacy, education and science to protect the Cook Inlet watershed, provides the first evidence that freshwater habitats may also be a contributing factor.
The effects of chinook salmon's decline have been felt throughout the state from economic fallout in the tourism and commercial fishing industries to sport and subsistence use. The impacts have been significant as the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) has been closing commercial and public fisheries statewide since the late 2000s to preserve the valuable salmon runs.
But with the research team of seven’s findings, recently published in the journal Global Change Biology, “Watershed‐scale climate influences productivity of chinook salmon populations across southcentral Alaska,” the project, which examined Cook Inlet chinook salmon in 15 watersheds in Southcentral, may provide valuable insights on cumulative effects driving the decline of chinook salmon.
Continue reading at University of Alaska - Anchorage.
Image via James Evans / University of Alaska - Anchorage.
