First Nations fishery opens up in Yukon River

A significant increase in the number of salmon in the Yukon River has enabled fisheries authorities to lift restrictions on the First Nations subsistence fishery, and raises the possibility the sport, commercial and domestic fisheries could be opened up as well.

Late last week, about 41,000 chinook salmon were counted on the river at the Alaska-Yukon border a huge jump from last year's record low numbers, according to the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

"This is above the average of 28,000 and it's well above what we saw last year, which was just over 12,000," Sandy Johnston, the department's chief stock assessor in the Yukon, told CBC News.

Johnson said sonar counts in the Yukon River show the chinook count should exceed 54,000 salmon this year.

"There's enough fish to satisfy a full First Nation fishery and meet the escapement target," he said.

"We're still waiting to see the counts over the next couple of days to be able to make a projection on the total numbers. Both the sport fishery, the commercial and domestic fishery are waiting on results of that."

Fisheries officials are also celebrating a resurgence of salmon in the Klondike River at Dawson City, Yukon, a first in years.

Johnson said a new sonar station at the mouth of the river has counted more than 2,600 salmon to date.

"It's one of the earlier stocks, so it's an interesting stock to monitor," he said. "That's a fair number of fish in the Klondike."

Announcements about further fishery openings are expected to be made later this week, Johnston said.