This summer, Chugach Regional Resource Commision’s (CRRC) Tribal Fisheries Program trained and employed five Nanwalek weir technicians to mobilize, manage, and demobilize the fixed picket weir and new floating weir.
Recent years of Nanwalek sockeye salmon escapement has reached all-time highs, with a 2020 escapement of 31,000 sockeye salmon and a 2024 escapement of 19,529 sockeye salmon. For reference, only one year in the 1980s reached an escapement of 20,000 sockeye salmon.
The English Bay Lakes (EBL) system is located on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula near the Alaska Native Village of Nanwalek. Sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) that return to this system are a vital resource to Nanwalek for cultural identity, subsistence, and Suqpiaq way of life.
In addition to providing an important avenue for community involvement in the management of the EBL sockeye fishery, this unique weir monitoring program has been instrumental to in-season fisheries management to support subsistence activities and forecasting sufficient escapement levels for future generations.
Disease Monitoring & Age, Sex, Length, and Genetics Sampling
CRRC and the Nanwalek weir crew started a new project within the monitoring efforts by lethally sampling 20 sockeye salmon for disease testing. The reason for this effort is in the 1990’s, there was a disease in pre-smolts held in net pens in English Bay Lake as part of an enhancement program.
Preliminary results and discussions with ADFG Pathology expert suggests there is normal levels of disease in the wild English Bay Lakes sockeye salmon stock. There is minimal concern of a major fish die off due to disease because of the rapid flushing rate of the lakes clearing out bacteria in the water and the high escapement would naturally balance disease-related fish mortalities.
Water temperatures should be monitored as that can lead to another outbreak involving the T. bryosalmonae parasite that resulted in a disease called Proliferative Kidney Disease. This parasite is not a human health concern but it can cause disease and mortality in salmonids with various degrees of susceptibility, where water temperature is the main driver for disease manifestation in fish with underlying subclinical disease.
This parasite represents a potential emerging fish health issue under the continued climate changes and global warming that we are experiencing, and it should continue to be monitored in English Bay Lakes sockeye salmon.
Additionally, the crew also began collecting age, sex, length and genetics data on a total sample size of 55 fish. For the 55 scales that were collected, CRRC’s Tribal Fish Biologist will age the scales this fall with ADFG and update Council and the community on the returning age of sockeye salmon this year. The genetics samples will be returned to ADFG and NOAA and be cataloged for ongoing research on the differing run timings.
Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) film project
Nanwalek IRA Council expressed to CRRC the needs surrounding Traditional Ecological Knowledge collection about the Nanwalek Salmon Enhancement Program. CRRC led three TEK interns in the efforts of conducting 17 filmed interviews with fisheries experts in Nanwalek and ADFG biologists in Homer as part of a film project to document the history of the weir program and the fishery. The TEK interns are now working on transcribing each interview so that CRRC and NVN can use this information for future reports and website content. Bjorn Olson, the filmmaker, will be creating the film this winter and will have it finalized for the Nanwalek Sea Week event spring 2025.
Fishery Working Group
This summer CRRC and Nanwalek created the Nanwalek Fishery Working Group (FWG) to improve conservation planning and practices.
Within this group, CRRC invited agencies, Nanwalek community and Tribal Council members, to facilitate conversations around needs and issues along the EBL. CRRC led multiple site visits in Nanwalek, creating spaces for generating trust and reciprocity and establishing ideas and goals to sustain partnership over time.
Overall, the FWG and TEK interviews will provide a necessary path forward in which partners can continue to contribute robust environmental information, respond to fishery impacts, strengthen community resilience and decision-making, discuss and create pathways for building economic opportunities and social capital, and develop and endorse structures for fisheries management.
Derelict Net Pen Removal
As a result of the FWG, CRRC’s Tribal Fisheries Program has been working with Nanwalek IRA Council this summer on the restoration needs for the English Bay Lakes system. After the closing of a hatchery operation within the EBL system around 2013, material related to the hatchery was left in Second Lake.
Four, 50ft x 50ft steel net pens leftover from the hatchery remain in the system in varying states of disrepair. This poses threats to water quality within the system as these materials continue to break down, as well as physical threats to spawning and rearing Pacific Salmon. The degrading steel also threatens water quality, as it releases zinc and other chemicals into the environment as it breaks down.
One net pen is lodged at the mouth of Second Lake. This net pen poses serious threats to Pacific Salmon passage, as it has the potential to completely block the movement of spawning and out-migrating salmon if left in its current state, especially at low water. In other areas of the EBL system, beached net pens have the potential to physically impede spawning habitat while diverting human traffic into sensitive shoreline areas.
CRRC’s Fisheries Biologist has been working diligently with USFWS Fish Biologist Maura Schumacher to secure funding to clean up and remove the net pens that were left behind from hatchery operations a decade ago. CRRC is anticipating to complete this project by the end of 2025.
The thorough removal of these net pens from this system will result in improved water quality and will ensure free passage for salmon within the EBL system. It will also ensure that the banks of the streams and lakes within the system remain free of debris, allowing for vegetation to grow uninterrupted.
Community Outreach
CRRC’s Tribal Fish & Wildlife team has flown to Nanwalek many times this field season to speak with Nanwalek IRA Council about the growing Fisheries Program.
Not only do in-person Council meetings provide valuable community-level input, but also every trip to Nanwalek has offered immeasurable benefits in building relationships and fostering trust with community members, particularly when addressing such a personal topic as salmon subsistence.
These personal connections not only facilitated collaborative work on Nanwalek salmon subsistence projects but have laid the foundation for future collaborations and partnerships. Through continued engagement and relationship-building, CRRC aims to nurture stewardship over salmon resources and work together towards their preservation and abundance.
