Witnessing one of nature’s most impressive migrations: a summer with the Alaska Salmon Program
Nestled among a set of glacial lakes in the Wood River system is where scientists with the Alaska Salmon Program spend their summers. From students just beginning their research journeys in aquatic sciences, to seasoned field technicians and faculty, the camps based on Lake Aleknagik and Lake Nerka are the temporary home for both scientists and the fish that they are studying: Pacific salmon.
Five different types of Pacific salmon return to the western Alaskan watersheds of the Nushugak River system each summer, but the sockeye salmon is the predominant one in the Wood River system, where the Alaska Salmon Program conducts much of its research. Changing from a silver color in the marine environment to a startling red when they return to freshwater systems, sockeye salmon are one of nature’s most impressive migrations. Year after year, tens of millions of sockeye salmon return to the freshwater systems in which they were born, to continue the cycle of spawning for the next generation of fish.
The Alaska Salmon Program at UW, formerly known as the Fisheries Research Institute (FRI), has been running since the 1940s and continues to this day to deliver the latest insights into Alaska and one of the world’s important aquatic ecosystems and fisheries. It’s also a program that trains the next generation of fishery and aquatic scientists in an immersive, hands-on, and real-world environment that undergoes a huge transformation each year. To date, hundreds of students have visited the field camps in Alaska, with many going on to work in fields such as fishery and wildlife management, environmental education and academia.
So, what does an average day with the Alaska Salmon Program look like? Collecting data on salmon abundance, sex ratios, spatial distributions across spawning areas, species differentiation, and ages of returning salmon from otoliths are just some of the things feeding into the Alaska Salmon Program’s long-term monitoring program. Otoliths, the ear stones of fish which provide information on size and age, are taken from dead salmon which have completed spawning or have been killed by bears.
Another area of research is limnology, which is the study of inland aquatic ecosystems, involving researchers going out on skiffs to various points around the lakes to collect samples including temperature and presence of aquatic organisms like zooplankton, which are the primary food for juvenile sockeye salmon that rear in the lakes before migrating to the ocean.
All of this data feeds into the Alaska Salmon Program’s long-term monitoring program that tracks abundance and the impact of wider issues like climate change on these ecosystems. All the different streams and lakes in these watersheds react differently to climate, as do the fish in them – from migrating fish like sockeye salmon to resident fish like rainbow trout and grayling. The data generated from long-term monitoring efforts and research therefore give insight into the impact of climate change on these ecosystems and how the fish are responding when they travel up the streams to spawn.
Another key part of the work of the Alaska Salmon Program is its pre-season forecasts provided to the fishing industry that operates out of Bristol Bay. Forecasts on fish runs and age/weight of fish is important for the management of commercial fisheries as the forecasts allow managers and fishers to fine-tune their operational plans for the following season A new development in this work is providing an earlier pre-season forecast as the industry begins planning for the next season’s operations, even as the current season is winding down.
Watch Part 1 of our mini series with the Alaska Salmon Program
Watch Part 2 of our mini series with the Alaska Salmon Program
Did you know, Aleknagik means ‘Wrong Way’ in Yupik? The Wood River is a major tributary of the Nushagak River, joining the main river near the coast at what is present-day Dillingham. In pre-historic times, if residents traveling inland from the coast reached Lake Aleknagik via Wood River, they knew they’d gone the wrong way if they had actually intended to navigate up the mainstem of the Nushagak.