Anglers of all ages took to the water over the Memorial Day weekend, hoping to land a salmon fit for the special first prize awarded during Wrangell’s 63rd Annual King Salmon Derby.
Chad Smith won the $2,500 weekend prize with a 42.7-pound specimen, and propelled himself to first place in the derby bracket. Ending June 7, this year’s first-place fish earns its captor a $6,000 prize.
Thirty-seven fish were weighed in between Friday and Monday, though it is likely many more were caught. Derby participants have a tendency to not weigh in fish not considered contenders for cash prizes, though every salmon entered is also an entry for prize drawings at the Award Night on June 11.
“Everybody who entered a fish in last year got a prize,” said Cyni Waddington, with the derby’s planning committee. “Definitely weigh in those fish.”
Overall, she has noticed a slight uptick in ticket sales over last year, which various factors may have contributed to, such as the low price of fuel or unusually lengthy stretch of warm, dry weather.
“I think the weather is contributing to awesome fishing. People love to go out and fish when it’s nice out,” Waddington said.
When the sun is shining and the wind is down, the glittering sea invites people to pack their poles and a good lunch for a bit of boating. However, the extended dry spell affecting Wrangell through much of May has been posing problems in other areas.
An elevated fire danger warning was in effect throughout the inner channels in Southeast on Friday and Saturday, and on Tuesday the City of Wrangell issued a public notice requesting that residents conserve water after its reservoirs dipped below the usual levels.
Minimal snowpack built up over the wet and mild winter already set the stage for water worries this year. Melt from the pack typically serves as a stable source for the region’s many creeks and streams, and its absence is exacerbated by stretches of low rainfall such as May’s.
As of Friday, Wrangell had received only 0.6 inches for first three weeks of May. For comparison, by the same time in 2014 Wrangell had received 2.62 inches and 2.65 inches for the first three weeks of May in 2013.
According to U.S. Climate Data, the area’s May average between 1961 and 1990 was 4.61 inches.
Though Wrangell experienced higher-than-average rainfall in April—6.73 inches, over an average of 4.57—March was also a slightly drier than usual month.
What this translates into is less water feeding into and replenishing local systems, a situation which in the past has contributed to die-off events in fish populations. Lower oxygen levels and limited habitat are pressures that can be detrimental to spawning fish, for example, resulting in population declines.
In other instances, die-offs can result in the premature deaths of adult fish, also not uncommon in Southeast. In 2013, the Petersburg Pilot reported the deaths of 1,100 salmon in Blind Slough caused by warmer temperatures.
“Thus far we haven’t had any permanent damage,” said Patrick Fowler, a fisheries biologist for Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) in the Petersburg-Wrangell area. “It might not be a problem at all.”
Although ADFG noted higher than average water temperatures during this year’s steelhead survey, no die-off events have been observed so far. He said the real test will be when salmon populations begin returning to systems to spawn later in the summer.
“We’re watching and waiting to see what happens there,” Fowler said. In the event of a problem, ADFG can control the human harvest element by issuing emergency closures. “There’s not much we can do other than protect what stock is coming back,” he explained.
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