Cook Inlet 



Cook Inlet has several complex salmon 

 fisheries, and problems of their management 

 are complicated by the rapid settlement and 

 industrial development of the area. The 

 population in the area around Anchor2ige is 

 nearing one-quarter million, and an elabo- 

 rate network of roads and highways has made 

 fishing and spawning grounds accessible that 

 were nearly isolated a few years ago. As a 

 result, personal-use and sport fishing are 

 now very important factors in the management 

 of the fishery. 



1941 '42 "43 '44 '45 '46 '47 '4B '49 '50 '51 '52 '53 '54 '55 '56 '57 '58 



Figure 15. --Catch and fishing effort, Cook Inlet 

 red salmon. 



Until ten years ago, a stable set net 

 eind trap fishery produced aji average pack 

 of 125,000 cases of red salmon in July of 

 each year. Some 20,000 cases of king salmon 

 were put up in June, £ind beach seiners con- 

 ducted a minor but dependable fishery for 

 pink and chum salmon around the lower Kenai 

 Peninsula after the red salmon run was over. 



A new drift gill net fishery invaded 

 the Inlet in the late 1940's and raised the 

 red salmon pack to 175,000 cases in both 

 1950 and 1951 (figure 15). Since then the 

 red salmon catch has greatly declined. More 

 recently, the king salmon runs have also 

 dwindled, but a new pink salmon run has 

 developed along the east shore of the upper 

 Inlet in early August of the even-numbered 

 years. Chum salmon occur in variable but 

 "bften substantial abundance along with the 

 red salmon in July. Coho salmon support a 

 very small fishery the latter part of August. 

 Figure 16 shows the relationship of the 

 average pack of the Cook Inlet salmon fish- 

 ery to the 1958 pack. 



Probably nowhere in Alaska were this 

 season's salmon fisheries more aberrant than 

 in Cook Inlet. The pack consisted of only 

 6,600 cases of king salmon and 38,000 cases 

 of red salmon. The chum salmon pack was 

 normal. Pink salmon saved the season for 

 fishermen and packers alike with a phenome- 

 jial production of 165,000 cases — the result 



1958 PACK 



^m- 



LONG TERM AVERAGE 



[21 



l9 7o. 



7Vo 



RED PINK CHUM COHO KING 



Figure 16. --Relationship of 1958 pack to long-term average, Cook Inlet. 



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