In Western Alaska’s Kuskokwim River, site of devastating salmon crashes and federal-state management disputes in recent years, fish returns showed some positive glimmers this year, according to preliminary summaries released by a Tribal organization and by the state.
For chum salmon, long a mainstay in local people’s diets, returns were better this year than last year and better than the record-low conditions of 2021, preliminary numbers show. But the struggles continue, said Kevin Whitworth, executive director of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.
