A decades-long decline in salmon in the Yukon River has reached a crisis this year, forcing harvest closures and prompting emergency shipments of salmon from other regions of Alaska to river residents who are otherwise facing food shortages.

Chum returns are the lowest on record, leaving communities with empty freezers and uncertainty about getting through the winter.

The prospects are dim for this summer’s Norton Sound commercial fishing and crabbing seasons.

The Kuskokwim River king salmon run does not look particularly strong this year, but chum numbers look even worse. Historically, around 60% of the salmon in the river at this point in the season would be chum or sockeye, but right now Bethel Test Fishery numbers show that just over 20% of the salmon are.

“The midpoint of the Anchor River king salmon run was extremely late. These fish are really having some odd, unprecedented run timing and behavior."

This year the Eagle station's fall chum estimate is 23,828 fish. This is far below the escapement goal of 70,000 to 104,000 fish.

The Yukon First Nations Education Directorate gave away 30,000 pounds of free fish as part of its nutritional program in Whitehorse this week. People were particularly happy to receive the donation because salmon are well below the historical average this year.

A lack of chum salmon is causing pain in riverside communities of Yukon and Alaska, as mushers are left without a traditional source of food.

So far, the department has counted just under 37,000 fish at the Chilkat weir, well below the 10-year average of 80,000 fish. Zeiser said at this point in the season, it’s doubtful the run will hit the escapement range of 70,000 to 150,000 fish.

About 189,000 fall chum had entered the Yukon River as of Sept. 7. At least 300,000 fish must enter the river before either Alaska or Yukon fishers can begin harvesting.

The Yukon Salmon Sub-Committee is recommending the complete cessation of fishing for Chinook salmon this year on the Yukon River.

The number of chinook salmon that reached the Whitehorse fish ladder this year hit a 40-year low, and it's not clear why. Just 282 chinook passed through the fish ladder this year, compared to 690 last year. "We did see some large pre-spawn mortality die-offs in a tributary of the Yukon River — the Koyukuk in Alaska. This was for summer chum, and not chinook — but we expect that that higher water temperature also affected the chinook migrating through."

"Jakolof Creek is dry almost all the way up to the switchbacks and continues to recede. The early run of red salmon may have made it to the lake, but that is probably the only run that has."

During the summer of 2019, warm water temperatures lowered the amount of dissolved oxygen in rivers and caused salmon across the state, including Mountain Village, to die before they were able to spawn.

Dead chum salmon are lining the banks of one of the Yukon River’s largest tributaries. Koyukuk River residents and scientists alike suspect the deaths are

"Over 40 dead dog salmon, one shee fish, one lush fish, and two delmaga all dead along the river going towards the creek opening."

As record high temperatures swept Alaska, many people said that the heat was killing them. For Kuskokwim salmon, it was actually true.

We observed more than 50 otherwise healthy (not spawned out) dead fish including pink and chum salmon and white fish

Village wildlife observers worry that the unusual warmth of oceans off Alaska is causing problems throughout the ecosystem.

"Our temperatures reached 83 degrees, and seem to be getting hotter! We think that maybe the warm water has something to do with the humpy die-off?"

Widespread mortality events that include more than one fish species are indicators that something is wrong in the environment.

Anglers in Aklavik, N.W.T., are trying to figure out why there was a shortage of fish in local hotspots this year.

Weak returns forced the latest restriction. Good news: Sockeye fishing at the Russian River is forecast to be good.

Drought and high temperatures have dried the creek and caused thousands of pink salmon and Dolly Varden to die before they could spawn. The event raises questions about vulnerability of area salmon streams to climate change, and for local residents food security.