Efforts to restore the once mighty chinook salmon on the Yukon River appear to be making incremental gains as in-season data shows higher than predicted numbers of fish passing over the Yukon-Alaska border.
According to data released by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the number of Chinook salmon that swam past the sonar monitoring station in Eagle Alaska had already reached 27,815 as of Aug. 4. The sonar station is the closest fish counting device to the Yukon-Alaska border and is often used as a close approximation to understand how many chinook are reaching Canadian waters.
This year’s returns of chinook salmon have far outnumbered both pre-season estimates and previous year’s numbers. The DFO initially expected roughly 18,000 chinook salmon to reach Canadian waters by the run’s end in late summer. This estimate was partly based on data from last year when 18,473 chinook swam past the sonar station in Eagle.
With several weeks of the 2026 salmon run still ahead, the DFO says they have updated their in-season estimate for the number of chinook expected to reach Canada. The DFO now expects around 45,000 chinook to pass the sonar station at Pilot Station with roughly 30,000 of those fish expected to swim over the international border to Canada in 2026.
The number of chinook salmon returning to the headwaters of the Yukon River has been in a steady decline since the 1980s. In recent years, however, the population has suffered from a near total collapse with declines spiking sharply in the late 2010s. The population hit its rock bottom around 2022, when only 12,000 fish passed the Eagle sonar, according to data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
While this year’s numbers represent a positive upward trend for the embattled chinook, this year’s projection is still less than half of the population’s rebuilding target of 71,000 returning fish. This target was set out by conservation authorities on both sides of the border as part of a joint US-Canada agreement signed on April 1, 2024.
According to an emailed statement from DFO spokesperson Lauren Girdler, the agreement is “intended to help stem the persistent decline of chinook salmon by ensuring that enough salmon reach the spawning grounds each year to sustain the population and provide future harvest opportunities.”
As part of this agreement, a total moratorium on chinook salmon fishing exists on both sides of the border in order to help support the population’s recovery. While this year’s numbers are positive, Girdler said that “directed Yukon River Canadian-origin chinook salmon fisheries will remain closed” until run returns meet the rebuilding target.
The current moratorium was enacted in April 2024 and is expected to be in force until at least 2030.
Contact reporter Noah Korver at noah.korver@yukon-news.com
By Noah Korver, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Aug 20, 2026 at 17:57
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