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Date Posted: 03:47:41 04/28/04 Wed
Author: Don Johnson
Subject: Wake up and smell the water, Kenai River.

Wake up and smell the water, Kenai River.
Posted by Don Johnson on April 17, 2002 at 04:24:51:

When was the last time you really looked at the Kenai river? Everyone looks at the river when they drive over it or fish on it but when was the last time you scooped up a glass of it and looked at it? If you have never tried it I recommend the experience.
Rather than being an Monday morning fisheries quarterback, go down to the Kenai river and get a glass of the stuff and set it on the shelve at room temperature. Then place a glass of regular water next to it.
Let the two glasses set for a week or two and then smell the difference. If you do the experiment you will notice that the Kenai water really smells rancid and the regular water has no odor. This is when you suddenly discover that Kenai river water is not
just water, it is also a transport medimum and preserver of decomposing salmon carcasses. These spawned-out carcasses are a vital link between generations of furure salmon stocks.
Without these decomposing carcasses it is impossible for nursery lakes, rivers and oceans to maintain adequate nutrient levels.
Low salmon escapements force nutrient levels to decline as biogenic fertilization is removed from the cycle. Decomposing carcasses from adults have the ablity to enhance zooplankton by increasing
phytoplankton production thus allowing the same lake to feed more sockeye fry.

The term "overescapement" is a spawning and living area term which is more or less a system constant. Nutrient levels are a system variable and can expand or reduce system capacity. Many people feel overescapement or maximum escapement is calulated from spawning and living area. The truth is that area is involved but nutrient levels control maximum escapement.

If you have no idea how Kenai river nutrient levels change from year to year, you have no idea how close or far you are to or from maximum escapement. Maximum escapement thus becomes directly related to nutrient levels. The maximum number of dependent sockeye fry is more directly linked to nutrient levels and the resulting phytoplankton production than living area. Area and nutrient levels are both necessary but nutrient levels are the expandable element within a
system. If you can state as fact the maximum amount of phytoplankton a lake can carry then you can talk about maximum escapement.
Pesent fisheries managers focus so tight on living area information that they ignore nutrient level information. Area and nutrient information work together to produce maximum escapements.
> >
Do you think we had a bad salmon run this year? We will continue to see bad things happening within our fisheries until we can get a fisheries biologist to put the graphs and charts down long enough to smell the water.

Donald Johnson
Soldotna, Alaska 99669
ccpwow@gci.net

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