US-Russia Conservation Exchange in Alaska© Ryan Peterson

Trans-Pacific Learning

Trans-Pacific Learning

WSC hosts exchanges on sportfishing, watershed management.

Alexander Kulikov joins a trip to the Kenai as part of a US-Russia conservation exchange
Khabarovsk Wildlife Foundation’s Alexander Kulikov joins Russian partners on the Kenai. Click to visit his partner profile© Ryan Peterson

The Wild Salmon Center hosted two exchanges last summer to foster relations between Pacific nations that rely on salmon for their culture, food and livelihood. In July, WSC and the Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association co-hosted an exchange between Kamchatka conservation leaders and Canadians and Alaskans. Participants learned about Alaska’s dual subsistence rights management system for both indigenous and non-indigenous communities, and how watershed management practices can benefit subsistence, sport, and commercial user groups. The exchange also greatly enhanced their understanding of issues contributing to the Yukon’s declining Chinook salmon populations and how these issues are being addressed. Kamchatka’s Bolshaya River is also facing declining Chinook stocks.

In September, six sport fishing and conservation leaders from Russia traveled between Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula to learn about salmon management and best practices in sportfishing. The exchange focused on how the different types of fisheries (particularly sport and personal use fishing) are assessed, managed, and regulated, and how commercial, sport, and traditional laws balance and overlap with one another. The exchange culminated with a trip to the Russian River in Alaska to see the annual sockeye migration and a day fishing for coho on the Kenai.

WSC staff and Russian sport fishing and ocnservation leaders participate in our US-Russia exchange
In September, sport fishing and conservation leaders from Russia traveled between Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula to learn about salmon management and best practices in sportfishing | © Ryan Peterson
Continue The Story