Arctic Ocean Salmon Numbers Increasing Rapidly - ADN

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Alaskans are heading into another summer of salmon plenty, and by the time commercial fishermen haul in their last gillnet and sportsmen cast their final hook, the catch is expected to top 160 million fish. Nearly all will be taken along the state's historic salmon belt, the southern coastline from Ketchikan to Cordova to Kenai to Kodiak to Bristol Bay.

In recent years, however, salmon have seemed to turn up more and more in an odd place - the Arctic Ocean, which laps the top of the state. Just ask Dora Nukapigak, cultural coordinator for the North Slope village of Nuiqsut. She's sure villagers who have long caught fish such as Arctic cisco, grayling and char as part of a subsistence lifestyle also are bagging more salmon, including king salmon - the biggest of the five Pacific salmon species - and small pink salmon. "In Barrow, my brother puts a net out. He catches a lot of kings," Nukapigak said. "And then over here in our rivers, we get more of these pink and silver salmon. They're coming in more than they've ever been. I'm not sure what kind they are, but we know they're salmon because they're red."

Craig George, a wildlife biologist for the North Slope Borough in Barrow, agrees that salmon seem more abundant. "Just from having lived here over 20 years, it's been my impression that salmon catches have increased," he said. So have the salmon temporarily lost their bearings, or have they shifted permanently to the Arctic for some reason?

Scientists are pondering whether salmon and other marine life are responding to climate change marked by warming waters and receding ice in the Bering Sea as well as the Beaufort Sea farther north.

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http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/ap_alaska/story/7752728p-7664800c.html