Alaska Beaufort Sea

It consists of the shores of Arctic Alaska, Chukchi, and the Beaufort Sea. On the Chukchi Coast, the Noatak River produces a large chum salmon that continues Kotzebue-based commercial fishing. Thousands of anadromus Dolly Varden enter the winter in the lower 300 km of the river and are born in some streams of the river. This system is known for the size of the Dolly Varden and the status record 8.9 kg was taken from the Noatak River in 1991. Whitefish, Arctic grassland, codfish and northern crane live in the Noatak River. Inconnu uses it to feed the lower reaches of the river in the spring of the year, but it is not known to spawn there. Both the Selawik and Kobuk rivers support Inconnu’s spawning populations in their upper reaches.

Rivers on the Beaufort Sea coast have stocks of Arctic coal harvested for subsistence and sports purposes. The largest river is the Colville River, where subsistence harvesting is done using nets. Arctic cisco and least cisco are harvested in the Colville River Delta near Nuiqsut, Alaska, after the ice is formed in the fall. The Arctic cisco, targeted by autumn fishing, originates from Canada’s spawning stocks in the Mackenzie River. The juveniles of the year are taken to the Colville area in August or September with the help of the western coastal currents produced mainly by the eastern winds. In contrast, the anadromous least cisco harvested as primary by-catch in fishing occurs entirely in the Colville delta and downstream river. He has a 20-year report on fisheries monitoring for the period 1985–2004.

The target species, Arctic cisco, is more than 65% of annual catch and the least cisco average is 22%. From 1985 to 2002, it is the total arctic cisco harvest for combined subsistence and commercial fishing. And in 2001 there was an average of 38,600 fish (15,958 kg) ranging from the lowest 5859 fish (2799 kg) in 1993 to 78,254 fish (31,340 kg). In the same period, the least cisco was caught, with an average of 18,600 fish (5819 kg) ranging from 6606 fish (2014 kg) in 2001 to 33,410 fish (11,319 kg) in 1985. In the six years when both harvest and population level estimates are available, the estimated total annual harvest of arctic cisco in the Colville River Delta accounts for an average of 8.9% of fish available. And annual estimates range from 5.4% to 12.9%. At least for cisco, the average annual extraction rate is 6.8%.

Fishing Assessment

In the case of Arctic cisco, evaluations were structured according to age and used hydro-acoustic models and environmental models.

Fishing in the Beaufort Sea

The Beaufort Sea is shared by Alaska and Canada, and there is no commercial fishing on marine fish on either side. Historically, there was a commercial fishing for Arctic Cisco on the US side. Currently fishing is moderate harvests by Inuvialuit and Alaska native marine mammals, Dolly Varden char, Salvelinus malma and Arctic Cisco, Coregonus autumnalis. Commercial fishing in the Beaufort Sea dates back to the 1960s, but economically viable commercial fishing has not been practiced in the area. Most fisheries in the area are focused on harvesting large anadrome large whitefish, C. nasus. They are caught in nets along the beach in summer or when they enter freshwater rivers to spend the winter, and large white fish grow and have better quality meat. However, a commercial fishery has not been developed due to limited local markets and high shipping costs.

Dolly Varden, west of the Mackenzie River, was once thought to represent a different form of the Arctic char. They live in the Rat River and its tributaries and are mostly harvested for subsistence. However, in two regions, the Great Fish River and Mouse Rivers were harvested through both subsistence and commercial fishing. Arctic coal typically occurs in river systems east of the Mackenzie River drainage. A Fisheries Joint Management Committee (FJMC) works with DFO to jointly manage all fish, fish habitats and marine mammals. The FJMC is empowered to advise the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans directly on fisheries matters. The committee is responsible for collecting harvest information and making recommendations on subsistence quotas for fish and marine mammals. FJMC also monitors sport fishing in the region.

Mathias notes that the main subsistence food for Canadian Inuvialuits comes from beluga whale, large whitefish, Arctic charcoal, ringed seal, inconnu, humpback whitefish, and Arctic cisco. Fishing efficiency and even biomass on Canadian Beaufort shelves are not known. No systematic research has been conducted for demersal and pelagic fish (other than larval fish) in the Canadian Beaufort Sea. However, in some places it was hunted with gill nets, beach purse seiners, fine nets and small medium water trawls. The distribution and ecology of off-the-shelf fish communities in the deep waters of the Canadian Beaufort Sea are mostly unexplored. This is partly due to inaccessibility due to ice cover and a lack of industrial interest in abyssal areas.

Mathias is less affected by the flow from the fertile Bering Sea of ​​the Canadian shelves. It is noted that Canadian shelves may be less efficient than the Alaska Shelf, as there may be other productivity differences caused by the large accumulation environment caused by the Mackenzie River. The Alaskan Shelf survey of the Beaufort Sea was carried out ~ 109 km east from the edge of the Barrow Trough and fished between 40 and 500 m past the shelf break.