When I first met Mary King, I arrived early at her Soldatna's office doorstep thinking we would talk about fisheries management techniques. But Mary was getting ready to strip eggs from Salmon at the Crooked Creek containment area for the enhancement project. The Chinooks had started their late return and the eggs were ready to be stripped. Mary invited us along and we followed with cameras in tow.

Enhancement is a term used by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to describe stocking programs; enhancement programs are used on a very limited basis by the Department. With Alaska's abundance of natural spawning grounds, the Department finds it more effective to manage the wild stocks for maximum sustained yield - a term I explained in my previous post.

Click photo for YouTube video of Enhancement Projects

When we arrived at the Crooked Creek containment area, Chinook Salmon were already contained in the holding area and the staff was getting ready to enter the holding pens and hand select Salmon that were mature and ready for their eggs to be stripped and fertilized. The eggs are first stripped from the returning wild stock of female fish and then fertilized. The process is very involved and requires the a number of staff members. But this is not all that is taking place.

Click photo for YouTube Egg Take video

The Department also wants to insure that stocked fish are not straying to other streams and river systems. So, when stocked fish are released they are embedded with a coded wire tag in their snout. Stocked fish also marked by having their adipose fin clipped. This fin clip identifies the Salmon as a stocked fish. The stocked salmon that are returning to the stream are then retrieved by staff members for recovery of their coded wire tags. This process gives the Department information of where the Salmon was released from and what "year class" it was.

The scene at the Crooked Creek containment area is very hectic. Fish are being recovered and stripped of their eggs. Eggs are being fertilized and "hardened off" in preparation for their trip to Elmendorf hatchery. Stocked fish are being recovered and preparations are being made for the recovery of the codded wire tag embedded in them.

Click photo for YouTube Coded Wire Tag video

Our filming of this event could not of been planned. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time. The fish were returning and they had matured enough for there eggs to be stripped. What a wonderful adventure it was to take a peek at the science, facilities and staff activities involved in managing a great river system such as the Kenai.

I want to thank the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Mary King and associated staff members for making this opportunity available for filming.

Several years ago, I was blessed with the opportunity to research salmon management techniques used on the Kenai River in Alaska.

Center channel netting of salmon to help enumerate sonar fish counts

While there, I met with Mary King of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Mary was instrumental into giving us a peek into the world of an Alaskan Fisheries Biologist. She took us to various sites and enabled us to view egg stripping, salmon sampling, sonar, and enumerating techniques used to keep the Kenai River Basin in balance with its associated breeding habitat. Mary's extensive background in research made it easy for her to explain the Department's management strategy which evolves around maximum sustained yield.

Mary King explains the virtues of habitat preservation.

In nature, without any human intervention, salmon stocks will rise and fall from season to season. One reason for this is that when too many salmon return to the beds, the beds are over burdened by excess amount of returning salmon. When this happens, future returns to the fishery decline; this is due to the unfavorable conditions which transpire.

Salmon sampling at Crooked Creek

Salmon returns, in an unmanaged fishery, become a bounty and bust scenario. Some years the return of salmon stocks will be very high; in other years the return of salmon stocks will be very low. This bounty and bust scenario is natures way of managing the fishery.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game fish wheel used to enumerate sonar counts.

When the philosophy of maximum sustained yield is applied, fishery stocks are managed for proper escapement. Escapement is a term used to describe the number of salmon that are allowed to escape the harvest and return to the beds to spawn. This management philosophy requires extensive research, planning and counting of returning stocks. And, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game goes to extensive lengths to insure that the escapement levels are appropriate.

Checking for coded wire tags helps track straying of stocked fish.

While in Alaska, Tom Mouzas and I filmed some of the methods used to measure the number of fish escaping the harvest. These techniques include the use of sonar, fishing wheels, nets and weirs. During the coming month, I will post some of our work on YouTube and provide a few links to this very interesting topic.

The taking of salmon eggs to be used at the Elmendorf Hatchery