Winter Ecology of British Columbia Chum Salmon in the Gulf of Alaska

Abstract:
There were relatively low abundances of ocean age 2, 3 and 4 chum salmon from British Columbia in the catches in the 2019 and 2020 Gulf of Alaska expeditions that possibly were an index of the poor adult returns in 2019 and 2020. Catches of all chum salmon in the 2020 survey were made in 25% of the sets compared to 64% of the sets in 2019 which was another possible indication of low abundance of older chum salmon in the basin-scale fishery collapse in 2020. There was one large catch of 165 chum salmon in 2020 which appeared to be evidence that chum salmon from British Columbia can form a large aggregation or school that also contained chum salmon from Japan, Russia and the United States. If winter expeditions are continued, it may be found that the age composition and abundance of British Columbia chum salmon in the Gulf of Alaska is an index of returning adult abundance well in advance of potential fisheries