State will stop using fish wheels to count Chilkat River salmon

After 50 years, the state will no longer use wooden fish wheels to count salmon on the Chilkat River north of Haines.

That leaves the Taku River, south of Juneau, as the only Southeast river where the Alaska Department of Fish and Game will operate fish wheels to scoop up salmon for research.

The wheels had operated June through October in the Chilkat River about nine miles from downtown Haines since the 1970s.

“It is sad — I’ve been comparing it to owning a wooden boat — it’s such a romantic wonderful thing,” said the state’s Haines fish research biologist Shelby Flemming. “But owning one and...