Lake Clark National Park and Preserve in Alaska was established, in part, to protect the sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) and their habitat. Park staff aver without the salmon, Lake Clark would be “a house with an empty pantry.”
Sockeye/red salmon, Lake Clark National Park and Preserve / NPS file
Also known as red salmon, sockeye are a keystone species critical for maintaining the park’s ecosystem as well as the lifeblood for one of the world’s largest salmon fisheries. To the Dena’ina culture, sockeye salmon are physical and spiritual subsistence and sustenance.
An anadromous fish species, sockeye salmon spend their lives in both freshwater and saltwater. The salmon hatch in freshwater where they spend a couple of years, then migrate to the ocean for one to three more years before returning to the creeks, streams, and lakes of their birth to lay their eggs (spawn). This occurs near the end of their lifecycle, and shortly after spawning, the sockeye die. Each year anywhere from 147,000 to 3.1 million sockeye migrate into Lake Clark via the Kvichak watershed. During their lives, sockeye provide food to both humans and wildlife (bears, wolves, eagles). In death, these salmon contribute nutrients to the environment while continuing to nourish wildlife, even though their nutritional value diminishes once they are spawned out.
Because sockeye salmon are so important to park and people, the National Park Service (NPS) monitors sockeye population via counting towers along the Newhalen River, south of the park boundary. These tower stations provide technicians a high-elevation perch from which to estimate salmon numbers returning to spawn in Lake Clark.
According to park staff:
This project provides real-time information to subsistence fishers as well as reliable estimates of spawning escapement to assess long-term trends and patterns. In 1980, the Newhalen River counting towers were established by the University of Washington Fisheries Research Institute to better understand the contribution of the Newhalen and Lake Clark watersheds to the overall Kvichak River sockeye salmon production. Salmon returning to these drainages provide 44-89 percent of the total wild resource harvest for residents in local communities. Monitoring continued at this site through 1984 with estimated returns ranging from 147 thousand to 3.1 million sockeye salmon. In 2000, the project was re-established by the University of Washington and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) because of concern about unprecedented declines in the sockeye salmon returns to the Kvichak River and Lake Clark watersheds and because of the importance of these fish for local subsistence users. Since 2004, the National Park Service has continued to monitor the Newhalen River salmon return with annual estimates ranging from 172 to 730 thousand sockeye salmon.
So, how do these counting towers work? According to an NPS presentation about Alaskan salmon, there are towers on either side of the Newhalen River. On the river bed below and a little beyond each tower is a rectangular-shaped white mesh making it easier for the counter to see the salmon swimming beneath the water. Using clickers for tabulation when the fish runs come in, fish crew will stand in the towers 10 minutes every hour and count salmon as they pass by, sometimes counting over 1,000 salmon within that 10-minute period. The data is then extrapolated to account for the number of fish that would have passed by the tower in an hour. “Extrapolation” is the practice of extending the application of a method or conclusion – in this case, the number of salmon counted during that 10-minute interval - to an unknown situation by assuming that existing trends will continue or similar methods will be applicable.
Subsistence And Traditional Use For the Dena’ina People
The inhabitants of southwest Alaska, including the Dena’ina people, practice subsistence living. They fish, hunt, and trap enough to provide food security and self-sufficiency for the entire year without taking more than they need. Their subsistence practices are allowed onto federal lands, including Lake Clark National Park and Preserve. As such, the NPS coordinates with other agencies and Regional Advisory Councils from across the state in federal subsistence management.
While sockeye numbers are important to subsistence living, it’s not just about the numbers. Sockeye salmon also represent culture and tradition to the Dena’ina, who practice longstanding methods for harvesting the land’s rich resources, with respect paid to the fish, other wildlife, and vegetation providing food for their tables.
Catching and processing the sockeye are done at fish camps, established in places where the salmon are known to be predictable and plentiful, as well as within easy access and fishing rights to Dena’ina families. More than just functional locations for processing the sockeye, fish camps are annual events – much like a family reunion including both relatives and friends.
To the Dena’ina people, all things are connected. The arrival of the salmon signals a time to gather and store food for use throughout the year, as well as a time to reconnect with other family and friends, and to teach a time-honored way of life, tradition, and cultural values to the next generation. Eating, visiting, traditional practices and shared values, as well as public displays of giving thanks for the food received, take place at these fish camps.
Bristol Bay Commercial Fishery
Bristol Bay is one of the last wholly wild salmon runs in the United States. In 1883, the first salmon cannery opened there and a little over 4,000 salmon were canned. Today, the Bristol Bay commercial fleet harvests around 20 million sockeye salmon valued at more than $100 million annually, making it the world's largest and most valuable commercial sockeye fishery. In 2019, 57 million fish returned to Bristol Bay, and in 2024, a preliminary count of almost 52 million sockeye have returned, making this the 10th year in a row that the total inshore run was larger than 50 million fish.
Annual Bristol Bay fish counts like the ones above for 2019 and 2024 may not always be this large. This is not necessarily a cause for concern, however.
According to Andrew Kirby, a fish technician mentioned in the NPS Alaskan salmon presentation:
Salmon have an amazing natural resilience to human and natural disturbance. Salmon in Alaska are doing well compared to the lower 48 because Alaska has a largely intact natural system. Bristol Bay sockeye returns are a good example of that stability and resilience. The region has large and stable returns despite high levels of commercial exploitation. Individual watersheds and rivers in the area have a large amount of variability in the amount of salmon over time. That natural variation (and sometimes decline) is often viewed by the public with concern, but is a normal part of a healthy system.
