New Salmon Rearing Habitat Found Across Yukon-Charley RiversBears alerted us to previously unknown salmon habitat in Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, which then spurred more comprehensive fish inventories of the Kobuk and Koyukuk river basins. Inventories expanded in 2019, as we worked with the Alaska Department of Fish & Game to sample salmon and other fishes in streams within or tributary to Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. This area was important to inventory because it contains known spawning habitats of chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and chum salmon (O. keta), but it has relatively limited documentation of juvenile chinook salmon rearing habitat. This area not only serves as a corridor for migrating spawning salmon and habitat for rearing juvenile salmon, but also supports subsistence fishers who rely on harvesting these (and other) fishes in eastern Alaska and the Yukon Territory, Canada. 
Alaska Department of Fish & Game The study found that 74% of the sites visited (31 of 42 sites) supported juvenile chinook salmon. At 26 of the sites, salmon had never been observed and these sites were nominated for inclusion into the Anadromous Waters Catalog (AWC), the state’s regulatory atlas of waters critical to the life histories of anadromous fishes. The inclusion of these sites added scores of miles of new salmon stream habitat across 26 different waterbodies to the AWC. Identifying presence and critical habitat is an important first step in developing strategies to conserve wild fish populations. For more information, see the Anadromous Waters Catalog. 
Alaska Department of Fish & Game |
Last updated: February 22, 2021