Tim Gerberding News Today

A new cross-border agreement on Yukon River chinook salmon explicitly states that hydroelectric dams and development are affecting the species — and, according to one expert, that will force more scrutiny of the Yukon government.

While not as dire as last year, both runs still ranked as among the worst on-record for both species — the chinook run was the second-smallest, while the chum run was the fifth. 

Nobody is fishing, said Tiffany Agayar Andrew from the Alaskan village of Alakanuk on the river’s delta a short distance from the sea.

The collapse of wild salmon is causing a current of pain the length of the Yukon River, from Alaska’s Bering Sea to Canada’s Yukon territory.

The collapse of wild salmon is causing a current of pain that spans the length of the Yukon River, from its mouth at Alaska’s Bering Sea to the headwater’s in Canada’s Yukon territory 3,000 kilometres away.