Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Regional Information Report No. 3A.2012.06, Anchorage
The Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim region is vast, encompassing the entire drainage areas of the Yukon, Kuskokwim and northern rivers and coastal waters of the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort seas. The region is characterized by small villages within the traditional territories of Inupiaq, Yup’ik, and Athabascan people, whose residents depend today, as they have for countless generations, on subsistence fishing for a major portion of their livelihood. Throughout more recent history, commercial fisheries for salmon Oncorhynchus spp., crab Paralithodes camtschaticus and P. platypus, whitefish Coregonus spp. and Prosopium cylindraceus, and other species have also sustained local economies and are economically intertwined with subsistence fisheries for many families. Fisheries management in this region is extremely challenging due to the mixed stock origin of most fisheries, remoteness, complexity, and vast size of the major river drainages, U.S./Canada Treaty agreements for the Yukon River, and the interdependence of subsistence and commercial fisheries. The proposed projects would provide necessary research and support management activities within the region. For the Arctic area, 6 salmon projects, 2 marine research, and 3 management support projects are proposed. For the Yukon area, 8 research projects are proposed to improve stock assessment and understanding of salmon, whitefish, and lamprey Lampetra camtschatica populations important for commercial and subsistence fisheries. Two would extend ongoing sonar assessment projects in need of more stable funding sources. For the Kuskokwim area, 12 projects for salmon and whitefish assessments, 2 fishery specific projects, and 3 general support projects are proposed, many of which would extend ongoing research and management activities in need of more stable sources of funding. Regionally, 2 projects are proposed to enhance the salmon stock biology program through quality control improvements and training, and a marine research project is proposed focusing on juvenile salmon originating in the Yukon and other area rivers.
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