By Laine Welch
Alaska Dispatch News
One of the casualties of this year’s state budget cuts was money for a program aimed at discovering why Alaska’s king salmon stocks have declined since 2007.
A five-year, $30 million Chinook Salmon Research Initiative launched in 2013 included more than 100 researchers focused on three dozen projects across 12 major river systems from Southeast to the Yukon. Now the ambitious effort has been cut to about a dozen projects.
“We had to step back and narrow the focus and make sure key projects still had money to continue for at least the next two years,” said Ed Jones, a coordinator with the state Sport Fish Division who oversees the research team.
The project has received $15 million so far, with about $6 million remaining.
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