Awaiting the arrival of the first king salmon in Ship Creek
After last year’s poor runs, what will this year look like?
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - There’s a lot of anticipation surrounding this year’s salmon runs in Anchorage’s Ship Creek.
Last year, the king and silver salmon fisheries had to be closed early because of low numbers of returning fish.
The fish from Ship Creek are used to create brood stock that seeds many fisheries in Southcentral Alaska. The low salmon returns at Ship Creek can impact all of those runs.
Little is known about what happens to salmon once they head out into the ocean. What they encounter there that may prevent them from returning to their spawning grounds.
The first king salmon to be caught in Ship Creek is a sure sign of summer; that fish usually arrives around the third week in May according to Dustin Slinker, owner of The Bait Shack.
Somewhere out in the Pacific Ocean, salmon are headed our way. The uncertainty is how many will make it here and what we can do about it.
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