Years of Work Go Into Every King Salmon

Fish and Game intern Axl LeVan steadies a net while Weir Tech Myra Scholze moves a king salmon into a brood tube held by KRAA intern Heather Sadusky. The fish are transported to the larger hatchery raceway in the brood tubes before eggs are collected in August. Brianna Gibbs/KMXT photo

Brianna Gibbs /KMXT

For about ten years, the Kodiak Regional Aquaculture Association and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game have worked together to provide greater access to king salmon fishing on Kodiak through the road system king salmon enhancement project.
Only the Karluk and Ayakulik Rivers have native king salmon stocks on Kodiak, both of which are fairly inaccessible to the average person. So, to help keep king salmon a feasible sport fish, the two entities annually release thousands of Chinook smolt into freshwaters along the road system. But a substantial amount of work is done before those salmon are even born.