Sockeye salmon cycles in the Kvichak River, Bristol Bay, Alaska
Mathisen O and Poe P. 1981. Sockeye salmon cycles in the Kvichak River, Bristol Bay, Alaska. International Association of Theoretical and Applied Limnology. 21(2):1207-1213
Production of sockeye salmon or red salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) in Bristol Bay, Alaska peaks every fifth year. The ratio between peak and off years is of the order 7:1. This variability is largely ascribable to the returns to one river, the Kvichak River. Commerial fishing activities began there a few years before the turn of the century, matured and reached peak levels about a decade later. At the same time a cyclic pattern in abunance became clearly evident. In the 1930's the amplitude of oscillation between peak and off years increased, normally indicative of a stressed population. It was followed by a disappearance of peaks encumbering 2 to 3 years, and only a single peak year was retained until recent times, when again a 2-year peak has reappeared. Since the environments through wich the sockeye salmon passes in its life, linked in space and time, are still in their pristine state, nonrandom changes in the normal pattern of salmon abundance must be related primarily to fishin activities, both domestic and international. Such facts pose three questions, viz., how cyclic dominance is established, how it is being maintained, and to what extent it can be modified by fishing activities or by other forms of human intervention.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Mathisen, OA; Poe, PH
- Units
- LACL
- Keywords
- Animal Studies, Kvichak River Lake Clark National Park and Preserve AK, Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka)