Alaska Salmon Program - FRI

Lots of signs of recent bear activity while doing a survey of Hansen Creek today. In addition to these fresh kills and large bear kitchens, we noticed wet paths on many gravel bars, indicating a bear was likely not far ahead of us. We didn’t see any bears today, but it’ll be interesting to check the game cameras and see if any bears were using the stream just ahead of us! The total sockeye return to Hansen Creek this year looks like it’ll be right around 4000 spawners, much lower than last years run of 19000, but well within the normal range. Hansen has a pretty predictable ~3-4 year cycle with one big year (2014, 2018, 2021, 2024) followed by 2-3 years of lower spawning runs.