Age composition of subsistence harvests and total return of sockeye salmon from the Kvichak River

This project aged samples of sockeye salmon harvested in the subsistence
fishery in the Kvichak River watershed in 2018 and 2019. Age data were
vital to previously funded AKSSF Project #44362 ("Stock Composition
of Subsistence Harvests and Total Return of Sockeye Salmon from the
Kvichak River"). It was determined in that project’s first year that
scale reabsorption necessitated using otoliths to age samples rather than
scales. Ages from otolith reading combined with stock composition
estimates from genetic mixed stock analysis were used to evaluate survival
and productivity of brood years 2012–2015 at smolt and returning adult
life stages. This project only produced the age reads from otoliths.
Knowing the age composition of harvests permits reconstruction of the
sockeye salmon return and examination of cohort returns and estimation of
marine survival. This project dovetailed with AKSSF Project #44362 (Stock
Composition of Subsistence Harvests and Total Return of Sockeye Salmon
from the Kvichak River) by pairing age composition data with genetic stock
composition data. Accurate age data are key to fisheries management.
Harvests from in five communities along the Kvichak River were sampled
(Kokhanok, Pedro Bay, Iliamna-Newhalen, Nondalton and Port Alsworth).
Otoliths were collected during 2017, 2018, and 2019 to use to estimate the
age.