VAN CLEVE and BEVAN: DECLINE OF KARLUK SALMON RUNS 



Six salmon fisheries are now being managed 

 successfully on bases which can be judged from 

 published reports. These are the sockeye and 

 pink salmon fisheries of the Fraser River, the 

 red (sockeye) salmon fisheries of Bristol Bay, 

 the i)ink salmon fisheries of Kodiak Island and 

 Prince William Sound, and the sockeye salmon 

 fishery at Chignik. Since the Bristol Bay runs 

 move through the inshore fishery within 2 or 3 

 wk at most, on their way to the spawning 

 grounds, they cannot serve as a guide to the 

 management of the Karluk runs which histori- 

 cally enter the river beginning in early June 

 and continue until October. The Karluk sockeye 

 salmon run is therefore more similar in its 

 extent to that of the Chignik River or the Fraser 

 River which also may begin in June and usually 

 continues until October or later. 



The recent successful management of the 

 Chignik fishery has come about with the reali- 

 zation that the two lakes in the Chignik water- 

 shed contain independent populations of sockeye 

 salmon and that escapement to the more produc- 

 tive Black Lake must be provided from the early 

 season run. 



The Fraser River system is, of course, much 

 larger than the Karluk and its complexity and 

 actual as well as potential productivity of sock- 

 eye salmon is correspondingly greater. Moreover, 

 the Fraser sockeye salmon runs originate in a 

 number of completely independent rivers and 

 lakes between which interbreeding of sockeye 

 salmon populations is virtually impossible ex- 

 cept through straying of fish from overlapping 

 runs. There is no way of knowing from available 

 data if this happens in the Fraser, but the main- 

 tenance of the individual characters in time, 

 abundance, and seeming identity indicates that 

 if it occurs, such straying must be unimjiortant. 

 On the other hand, except for differences in en- 

 vironmental effects on survival, there appear to 

 be no natural barriers to stop Karluk fish from 

 spawning wherever they please in the water- 

 shed. Yet from the life history and peculiarities 

 shown by both the Karluk runs and the Fraser 

 River sockeye salmon within individual seg- 

 ments of the watersheds, and from the work of 

 Hartman and Raleigh (1964) and of Card and 

 Drucker (see footnote 5) there is no reason to 

 doubt that the Karluk watershed is inhabited 



by an unknown number of separate races and 

 there is now no reason for support of Rounsefell's 

 assumption that all segments of the run inter- 

 breed, i.e., that escapement from any part of the 

 run is equally desirable. 



The information required for effective manage- 

 ment of this fisheiy should not involve unneces- 

 sary assumptions concerning the nature of the 

 managed population which could nullify the 

 benefit from that management, if the assump- 

 tions are false. The importance of the return of 

 different races or segments of a run to different 

 spawning grounds should be obvious if these 

 different segments have varying reproductive 

 capacities, pass through the fishery at different 

 times, and are independent in reproduction. 

 Therefore, the fundamental requirements of 

 management of the Karluk sockeye salmon are: 

 (a) recognition of the existence of different and 

 independent races in the run, (b) adjustment of 

 regulation to the time these different races move 

 through the fishery, and (c) adjustment to the 

 length of time different races remain available 

 to the fishery as a basis for determining the 

 total numbers taken from each race by the 

 fishery, (d) consideration of the nature of the 

 fishery, and its potential for expansion or con- 

 traction of effort, (e) adjustment of regulations 

 to the productivity of each race, i.e., the num- 

 bers of fish which can be profitably accommo- 

 dated on its spawning ground, and if possible 

 (f) optimizing the methods of controlling the 

 fishery to obtain the escapement desired of each 

 race. 



REFERENCES 



Andrew, F. J., and G. H. Geen. 



1960. Sockeye and pink salmon production in rela- 

 tion to proposed dams in the Fraser River system. 



Int. Pac. Salmon Fish. Comm., Bull. 1 1, 239 p. 

 Armstrong, R. H., and W. M. Morton. 



1969. Revised annotated bibliography on the Dolly 



Varden char. Alaska Dep. Fish Game, Res. Rep. 



7, 108 p. 

 Barnaby, J. T. 



1938. Karluk River red salmon. In E. Higgins, 



Progress in biological inquiries, 1937, p. 31-33. 



[U.S.] Bur. Fish., Rep. U.S. Comm. Fish. 1938, 



append. 1 (Adm. Rep. 30). 

 1944. Fluctuations in abundance of red salmon, 



Oncoihyiuhus nerkci (Walbaum), of the Karluk 



River, Alaska. U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv.. Fish. Bull. 



50:237-295. 



647 



