Tŝilhqot’in government ‘outraged’ by Alaskan commercial harvest of salmon bound for B.C.

Many of B.C.'s largest salmon runs pass through Alaskan waters on their way home to spawn in B.C., according to the non-profit organizations that commissioned the report.

The Tŝilhqot’in Nation says it’s “outraged” by reports that commercial fishers in Alaska have harvested hundreds of thousands of salmon bound for British Columbia.

According to a report published this week, commercial fishers in six fishing districts off southeastern Alaska hauled some 50,000 Chinook, 1.2 million chum, 540,000 coho, 34 million pink, and 800,000 sockeye salmon out of the water in 2021.

Many of B.C.’s largest salmon runs pass through Alaskan waters on their way home to spawn in B.C., according to the Watershed Watch Salmon Society and SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, which commissioned the report.

The report authors used catch data obtained through from Fisheries and Oceans Canada staff, the Alaska Department of Fisheries and Game, other agencies and online resources.

“That’s a big threat to us and a big threat to our lifestyle around sockeye as a main diet,” said Tŝilhqot’in Nits’ilʔin (Chief) Joe Alphonse in a Friday interview.

“Here in the Interior we only have one option and that’s sockeye, so we’re heavily dependent on sockeye.”

The Tŝilhqot’in National Government has been heavily involved in the management of the Chilko Lake sockeye run — one of the only relatively healthy runs left in the Fraser River, said Alphonse.

The First Nation suspended its fishery for two years after the Big Bar Landslide hurt the salmon run in 2019, he added, which is why the numbers reported out of Alaska are so alarming.