Trends in harvest and effort in the commercial gill net (A), recreational hook-and-line (B), and personal use dip net and gill net (C) fisheries on the northern Kenai Peninsula. Commercial fisheries harvest more salmon than the other fisheries combined (note different y-axis scales), but the sport and personal-use fisheries have grown substantially. Commercial harvest includes Central District drift gill net and east-side set gill net fisheries. “Other” harvest includes Rainbow Trout, Dolly Varden, Arctic Grayling, and Northern Pike. Sources: ADFG and CFEC.
Photo credits (top to bottom): Madeline Jovanovich, Ron Neibrugge (via Creative Commons), jodyo.photos.
For more information, please see the following journal article: Schoen et al. 2017. Fisheries. “Future of Pacific Salmon in the Face of Environmental Change: Lessons from One of the World’s Remaining Productive Salmon Regions.”
From the Supplemental Information Section in Schoen at al. 2017:
"Harvest and effort data are reported differently for the commercial, recreational, and personal-use fisheries in Upper Cook Inlet, such that it is not possible to calculate the harvest and effort of salmon produced specifically by the Kenai River (including its tributaries) by each fishing sector. To make comparisons within a common geographic area, we aggregated harvest and effort data from the northern Kenai Peninsula, ranging from the Kasilof River in the south to Ingram Creek in the north. The Kenai River is the predominant salmon-producing river in this area. We aggregated harvest and effort data from the following fisheries: Commercial: Central District drift gill net and east-side set gill net (Shields and Dupuis 2016); Recreational: Northern Kenai Peninsula Management Area (Begich et al. 2013); Personal-use: Kenai River dip net, Kasilof River dip net, and Kasilof River set net (Fall et al. 2015; Shields and Dupuis 2016). ADF&G also reports harvest and effort for an “unknown” personal-use fishery in Upper Cook Inlet. This harvest and effort was reported on permits on which the fishery was left blank. We allocated this harvest and effort to each known fishery based on the proportions of accurately reported harvest and effort in each year."
