Ken Roberson, Who Literally Invented The Gulkana Salmon Hatchery, Talks About Fish

COPPER RIVER COUNTRY JOURNAL  

Ken Responds to the Journal That Fish (Sockeye) Numbers Don’t Look That Good & He Expects That The Personal Use Fishery Will See Fishing Time Restrictions 

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

Ken Roberson, the longtime Alaska State Fisheries biologist who initiated the Gulkana Hatchery near Paxson as a research project with 220,000 eggs in 1973, is now retired in Nevada.  The Hatchery is a significant contributor to the return on red salmon to the Copper River.  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 Nevada high desert.   Also, Ken has served on the Prince William Sound Aquaculture Board for over 20 years.  The Journal sent Ken a web story about recent Fish & Game information on the Copper River, and he wrote back the following review.

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) 

 FROM KENNETH ROBERSON 

Monday, June 15th, 2026 

To The Country Journal:       

It’s hard to be optimistic at this point in the Copper River salmon season; however, a turn around in the escapement of sockeye salmon could still occur.   I track on Fish & Game’s excellent web site data on the commercial fishery, sonar counts and the openings and closures of Personal Use and Subsistence fisheries.  I pay less attention to the Sport Fishery, but do follow any regulatory changes or restrictions.   My Excel spread sheet contains all the available data, and I update it daily as the information is posted.

The web story I received [from the Journal about the current salmon season] used Fish & Game’s “Minimum” sonar escapement figures – which tend to make things look a bit more optimistic. However, I use their “Point” estimate (based on long time averages) and the escapement numbers look less promising as the season progresses.  

The sonar count as of yesterday was about 140,000 below the “Point” estimate.  Of course the commercial catch is well below the expected, but under the conditions at the sonar site, it should be.  Widely separated short commercial fishing periods need to continue in order to evaluate run strength that may still increase or decrease further.

The Personal Use fishery operates on a Fish & Game “Management Plan” that in all likelihood will require some reduction in fishing time if the sonar counts continue as such low levels.   

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. 

Obviously, adequate numbers of salmon must reach the spawning grounds in order to have healthy returns in the future.  Sadly, due to limited budgets and personnel availability, aerial spawning ground surveys have been discontinued the last few years. 

 

The Personal Use fishery,  in combination with the Subsistence fishery, have taken as many as well over 300,000 salmon but the average is about 250,000, which is still a pretty good bite. 

Another question in the report I saw was in regard to fishwheels operated by the Eyaks (NVE) at Baird Canyon, which is just above Miles Lake and another wheel just below Wood Canyon at Canyon Creek.   

These wheels are part of a research program on Copper River king salmon where the fish are captured, data collected and the fish tagged and released.   The Prince William Sound Science Center, based in Cordova, is involved with these projects.

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)