As Chief Frost mentioned, Yukon first nations have drastically reduced and in some cases ceased their fishing, for many years. Those at the headwaters have really taken the lead. The Teslin Tlingit Council at the upper end of the main stem are a particularly good example of that.
I will say this about the genetic stocks and preserving the genes: The only way to do that for Yukon River salmon—these big seven-, eight- and in some cases even nine-year-old fish—is to conserve the wild fish. I think there's a bit of a misconception about the ability of science, and in particular hatcheries, to preserve genetic stocks, but that really isn't the way it works, unfortunately.
There is a compensation hatchery attached to the Whitehorse dam. The Whitehorse dam is literally 3,000 kilometres up from the mouth—or maybe 2,800. It's a long way from where the salmon enter the mouth. There is a 75-year-old fish ladder there that isn't particularly effective. There's lots of mortality associated with it.
Yukon Energy, which operates the dam, harvests wild stocks, has an incubation facility and releases quite a number of hatchery fish into the river. When they release those fish, they clip the adipose fin so that they're instantly recognizable. However, what we have noticed is that the hatchery fish that return to the Whitehorse facility or beyond are markedly smaller and thinner than their wild cousins.
Hatcheries seem like an easy answer sometimes, and they may very well play a role in preserving salmon, but they will not play a role in preserving the genetics of the big fish. I think the only way we're going to preserve those genetics is to eliminate fishing and make it possible for those big fish to get back to the spawning grounds.
Yukon River salmon are unique. They're among the biggest chinook in the world. They have among the longest migrations. It's the wild fish that have the very precious and unique genetics. To preserve those genetics, we have to preserve the wild fish.