Ken Roberson, Who Literally Invented The Gulkana Salmon Hatchery, Urges Management Prudence

COPPER RIVER COUNTRY JOURNAL 

Ken Wrote To The Journal That Fish Numbers Don't Look That Good To Him & Urges 'Backing Off' Personal Use 

Longtime Copper River Biologist Ken Roberson Reveals He Still Tracks The Fish & Game Numbers From Afar 

Says Gulkana Salmon Are Over Fished & Under Protected 

Ken Roberson, the longtime Alaska State Fisheries Biologist who literally designed the entire Gulkana Fish Hatchery near Paxson in the early 1970s, is now retired in Nevada. The Hatchery is vital for ensuring the return of red salmon to the Copper River. Understandably, Ken has a longtime understanding of Copper River salmon, and is still analyzing what is going on up here from his current home down south, in the hot Nevada desert. The Journal sent Ken a web story about recent Fish & Game information on the Copper River, and he wrote back with the following analysis…  

The Gulkana Hatchery, north of Paxson at Mile 191 of the Richardson, was designed by Ken Roberson in the 1970s, starting with plywood and drywall buckets. (Journal archive) 

 

Message From Ken Roberson, Sunday, June 14th, 2026 

Okay, regarding the report, I am less optimistic than the report and I'll try to explain where I have differences.

First and foremost, I track every commercial fishing period, the sonar counts and the openings and closures in the Personal Use and Subsistence fisheries.   I pay less attention to the sport catch, but do follow the reports that come out and any regulation changes, especially restrictions.  I maintain a spread sheet with the desired sonar counts and all of the other Copper River salmon data as soon as it is posted by ADF&G.   Their web site is pretty good at this point.

I do not use the "minimum" escapement counts for the simple reason that I do not consider them adequate.   I use the point estimate for the anticipated catch.   The net result is that only one day of sonar count was essentially the same as they expected.   

The sonar count as of yesterday is 125,000 below the "Point Estimate" for this comparison.  Of course the commercial catch is well below the expected, but under the conditions at the sonar site, it should be.

I was disappointed that Sport Fish opened the dip net fishery for a full 168 hours after the first opening, given the low sonar counts.  Hopefully they will back off until counts (if they do) come up to the standard.

I need to explain my bias.   From the fall of 1969 through the 1992 season, I did aerial surveys of the identified areas of both low and large sockeye returns, and Fred Williams and I did our best to cover the king salmon escapement.  

Workers at the hatchery in the fall from an undated archival photo by the Country Journal. Dated most likely in the 1980s or early 1990s. 

Since that time there have been only modest surveys and the last few years there have been none.    I am convinced that more than any other area, the Gulkana sockeye stocks have suffered from under protection/over fishing and there has been no effort to evaluate that, or any other spawning ground escapement.  

Part of the issue is budget and staff availability but the sonar count is simply not adequate to ensure that there have been enough fish to each (at least most) of the spawning areas.    That is why I refuse to use the "minimum" escapement figure.    

In addition, the combination of the Personal Use fishery, State, and Federal Subsistence fisheries can take well over 300,000 (the average is about 250,000 which is a pretty big bite) especially from a minimum escapement.

I am hopeful the return numbers do pick up but for now, it's few and far between commercial fishing periods to (among other things) judge the strength of the return and probably need to back off the Personal Use fishery a bit.

Ken Roberson and his wife, Vera, working as volunteers at the Log Cabin Visitor Center  at the Hub in the summer of 1998. (Journal archives)