Two people wearing waiters and rain gear edge their way down to a creek in the middle of downtown Unalaska. It's the middle of the night, and most locals are asleep.
“It seems sneaky, but it's really not meant to be sneaky. It's just that that's when the tides are happening,” said Elizabeth Hinkle, fisheries manager for Unalaska’s Qawalangin Tribe.
Hinkle helps manage the tribe’s weir and the two technicians who have been pulling night shifts, sampling fish and counting them as they pass through.
The weir, which sits near the bridge in front of Unalaska’s Community Center, acts like a gate, temporarily blocking salmon as they move upstream. It was first installed in 2024 and is run by the Qawalangin Tribe and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The technicians count salmon as they pass through, collecting biological and habitat data as the sockeye head upstream to spawn.
This year, Hinkle said some of the biggest tides have been happening late at night so the technicians are doing the bulk of that work late during high tide, as that’s when the salmon prefer to move upstream.
“As the tide's coming up from the ocean, it kind of helps push them toward the weir, toward the lake,” Hinkle said. “So, as the water rises, it kind of gives them an opportunity to get a little more stamina.”
Hinkle said the fish are also moving when the tides drop, when they’re naturally triggered to push up the stream. The fish hole up near the weir then, which Hinkle said makes it look like the fish are stuck and can’t pass through during the day.
“I have heard rumors that people are concerned that fish are not being allowed through the weir,” she said. “I think these rumors were stemming from the fact that our technicians are working at night, and that's because that's when the big tides are happening.”
The fish are also battling low water levels this year, which have dropped enough that sandbars and other parts of the creek become exposed at certain times. The salmon sometimes hang out in deeper areas to avoid the dry conditions, according to Hinkle.
“It just allows them sort of refuge before they can push up,” she said.
Last year, water levels dropped low enough to trap salmon downstream, preventing them from passing through the weir. This year, Hinkle said they moved the weir downstream. The new location gives the fish some spots to wait out tides and make it through the weir, also providing them a safe haven from looming predators.
“There's a big hole for fish to kind of pool up downstream of that location, and there's also a big hole upstream of that location, so that fish can sort of push up through the weir, and then hole up and sort of prevent predation opportunities from eagles,” she said.
Hinkle said she thinks they will keep the weir in the new location next summer.
This is the third year the tribe and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game have run the local weir, which is funded through the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Hinkle said the funding runs through next summer.
There is usually another weir outside of town, at McLees Lake. It’s part of a larger subsistence system that’s only accessible by boat, but that weir hasn’t been funded since 2023.
Hinkle said part of the reason they sought funding for the newer weir at Town Creek is because they lost resources for McLees. She said hopefully next year, they’ll get the funding to have both running.
The tribe doesn’t have escapement goal numbers yet for the local weir, but part of this project is to build baseline data for the in-town subsistence fishery and to better understand the local ecosystem. It’ll be several years before they have enough information to set an escapement goal, according to Fish and Game biologists.
So far, escapement numbers are pretty close to last year, and Hinkle said she expects this summer’s total escapement to be comparable as well.
The project also allows the organizations to collect data about the health of the local salmon population and the stream. She said the tribe is also working to replace a culvert upstream from the weir to improve the habitat.
“Our hopes are in a couple years, when we get that culvert replaced, we would likely see an increase in habitat refugia and an improved stream system to juveniles and adults that are utilizing the Town Creek,” she said.
Hinkle plans to return to Unalaska around Aug. 1 to help break down the weir.
She said while it might seem like the fish are being prevented from moving upstream, that’s not the case. She said tampering with the weir is illegal and makes for messy data, but the community is welcome to observe and speak with the technicians while they work.
You can find daily fish counts on the Fish and Game website.
