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For two decades, the Yukon River’s once-vital salmon runs declined while American and Canadian governments bickered over who was entitled to the last catch. While the governments argued over catchment numbers, the individual First Nations who live along the river, focused on salmon for future generations, began taking salmon conservation into their own hands.
The Yukon River, one of the largest and longest in the world, begins on the U.S. side of the border in the Bering Sea. The Yukon River salmon, that mostly spawn in Canada, must swim against the current for up to 3,000 kilometres before reaching their spawning grounds. That cross-border journey has caused tensions, especially around the harvesting of chinook salmon (known as king salmon in Alaska) with runs half their historic size. The low numbers have been attributed to harvesting, man-made barriers such as the Whitehorse hydroelectric dam, degraded spawning grounds due to placer mining, climate change and unintended by-catch of salmon by ocean going commercial vessels at the mouth of the river.
In 2017 the Alaska Department of Fish and Game briefly opened up its Chinook salmon fishery, citing the strongest returns since 2005, before quickly shutting it down in the face of opposition from First Nations and Native fishermen on both sides of the border. Now, Indigenous peoples are taking management into their own hands, coming up with agreements to deal with the jurisdictional squabbles and implementing voluntary fishing restrictions within their communities.
All photos by Peter Mather.
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A grizzly bear smells out a spawned out Chum salmon along the edge of the Fishing Branch River. The fishing branch is another important tributary of the mighty Yukon River.
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James Itsi of Old Crow, Yukon hanging and smoking chum salmon in his shed.
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An aerial view of the Yukon River shortly after it crosses the Canada-U.S. border.
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A male and female Chinook salmon on a spawning redd in Tatchun Creek, a small tributary of the Yukon River.
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Thousands of salmon drying near the Canada-U.S. border in the 1930s. Courtesy of Yukon Archives, Claude and Mary Todd Fonds collection.
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A Chinook salmon hangs at Stephan Joe’s fish camp along the Pelly River. The Selkirk First Nation who reside along the Pelly River instituted a voluntary salmon harvest limit of 30 per salmon camp in 2016, as a way to maintain their salmon culture, but still enable the spawning salmon an opportunity to enhance the salmon stocks of the entire Yukon watershed.
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Vicky Josie, of Old Crow, checks her salmon net on the Porcupine River.
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Salmon are still caught using the more traditional salmon gaffs along many creeks throughout the watershed. Tatchun River near Carmacks, Yukon.
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Almost 20 years ago, the Teslin Tlingit First Nation concerned about salmon stocks, initiated a voluntary salmon fishing closure to help the Chinook Salmon run recover.
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Placer pilings, just outside of Dawson City, rerouted the Klondike River shortly after the great Klondike Gold Rush. Before the Gold Rush the Klondike was one of the best spawning habitats along the entire length of the Yukon River. The river is seeing a slow comeback of Chinook salmon and currently sees a run of approximately 5,000 salmon.
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The Porcupine River is a major tributary of the Yukon River that sees strong runs of Chinook and Chum salmon.
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A Chinook salmon, beneath the Northern Lights, on its spawning grounds in a small creek just off the Yukon River in Northern Canada.
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Chum Salmon spawning in the clear waters of the Fishing Branch River in Ni’iinlii Njik Territorial Park.
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The Nacho Nyak Dun First Nation holds a salmon camp each year, where the community focuses on easing the pressure on Chinook Salmon by netting alternate, healthy fish populations like Whitefish and Chum Salmon.
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Drying salted salmon before canning them for the winter ahead.
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A chinook salmon digs a hole or salmon redd at the bottom of the creek to lay its eggs.
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A young hand reaches out to touch a chinook salmon at the observatory on the Whitehorse fish ladder. The longest fish ladder is in the world enables the salmon the swim around the Whitehorse dam on their migration to their spawning grounds.
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A bald eagle returns to its nest with a catch. Salmon feed people and wildlife throughout the watershed. All life along the watershed depends heavily on the salmon.
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A spawned out Chum salmon is frozen into the edge of the Kluane River at the end of the spawning season.
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Chinook salmon alevins from the Whitehorse fish hatchery. The salmon are used to restock salmon creeks in the Whitehorse area to compensate for the salmon fry who die passing through the whitehorse hydro electric dam on their migration to the ocean.