PROCEEDINGS OF A TECHNICAL WORKSHOP ON FISHES UTILIZED IN SUBSISTENCE FISHERIES IN NATIONAL PETROLEUM RESERVE-ALASKA: BARROW, ALASKA, OCTOBER 26-28, 1988 Report prepared For NORTH SLOPE BOROUGH DEPARTMENT OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT P.O. BOX 69, BARROW, ALASKA 99723 by JOHN J. BURNS LIVING RESOURCES, INC. P.O. BOX 83570, FAIRBANKS, ALASKA 99708 SEPTEMBER 1990 TABLE OF CONTENTS BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................................................. 4 PROCEEDINGS OF OCTOBER 26, 1988 ......................................................................................................... 7 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ........................................................................................................................ 7 SPECIES ACCOUNTS ................................................................................................................................. 10 Arctic Cisco .............................................................................................................................................. 10 Round Whitefish ....................................................................................................................................... 22 PROCEEDINGS OF OCTOBER 27, 1988 ....................................................................................................... 25 Broad Whitefish ........................................................................................................................................ 25 PROCEEDINGS OF OCTOBER 27, 1988 ....................................................................................................... 27 Broad Whitefish ........................................................................................................................................ 27 Dolly Varden Charr ................................................................................................................................... 35 Least Cisco .............................................................................................................................................. 44 Northern Pike ........................................................................................................................................... 49 PROCEEDINGS OF OCTOBER 28, 1988 ....................................................................................................... 51 GRAYLING ...................................................................................................................................................... 51 Effects of tagging on grayling and other species ..................................................................................... 56 RAINBOW SMELT ............................................................................................................................................ 58 HUMPBACK WHITEFISH ................................................................................................................................... 62 HABITAT CONCERNS ..................................................................................................................................... 65 Causeways ............................................................................................................................................... 65 Gravel Dredging and Mining ..................................................................................................................... 69 Seismic Exploration .................................................................................................................................. 69 Stream Blockage ...................................................................................................................................... 70 Action and Reaction to Issues of Development ....................................................................................... 70 Community and Industrial Water Needs .................................................................................................. 71 INFORMATION GAPS/FUTURE RESEARCH NEEDS ................................................................................ 72 Generic Information Needs ...................................................................................................................... 72 SPECIFIC INFORMATION NEEDS .............................................................................................................. 75 Arctic Cisco .............................................................................................................................................. 75 Broad Whitefish ........................................................................................................................................ 75 Grayling .................................................................................................................................................... 76 Least cisco ............................................................................................................................................... 77 Arctic cisco ............................................................................................................................................... 77 Bering cisco .............................................................................................................................................. 77 Char.......................................................................................................................................................... 78 Habitats .................................................................................................................................................... 78 Other species ........................................................................................................................................... 79 Oceanography/Limnology ........................................................................................................................ 80 AQUACULTURE, FISHERY ENHANCEMENT AND REHABILITATION ..................................................... 81 SURVEILLANCE AND COMPLIANCE ......................................................................................................... 82 CONCLUDING REMARKS .............................................................................................................................. 84 APPENDIX I: LIST OF PARTICIPANTS .......................................................................................................... 85 APPENDIX II ..................................................................................................................................................... 86 2 INDEX ............................................................................................................................................................... 94 3 BACKGROUND The health, welfare, life-style and culture of most residents that live on the North Slope of Alaska are intimately tied to the harvesting of renewable resources for local use and consumption. The modern economy of the region is based on a combination of involvements broadly characterized as constituting a combined subsistence/wage economy. Living resources that are intensively harvested include various fishes, marine and terrestrial mammals and birds, and plants. The degree of dependence on these resources is quite variable and, in general, is greatest in the more subsistence oriented (and usually smaller) villages. Subsistence hunting, fishing and gathering continue to be very important activities even in the largest settlement on the North Slope, which is Barrow. Quite obviously, residents of the region are very concerned about human activities that may adversely affect the abundance and availability of fish and wildlife. This concern is evidenced by the fact that upon formation of an organized borough (the North Slope Borough), that local government entity chose to establish its own Department of Fish and Wildlife Management - an unusual situation for a borough, county or parish (all are basically equivalent local government bodies) in the United States. A prime reason for doing so was to obtain data and information about locally important living resources, and to effectively deal with a variety of very real threats. The threats range from efforts of some "outsiders" to stop continued harvest of important resources (as for instance the bowhead whale), to local reductions of resource abundance and availability resulting from industrial development, community expansion and harvesting. Petroleum exploration and production are important activities on the North Slope. The Prudhoe Bay oil fields are the largest producers of petroleum in the nation. Exploration on other parts of the North Slope and in the adjacent seas has been continuous, and several new prospects have been found. Other prospects are presumed to exist, particularly in the Harrison Bay area and within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). One area on the slope has been set aside and specifically designated as a petroleum reserve for the nation. It is the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, designated as NPR-A; a huge area that supports an abundant and relatively diverse fauna and flora and which is intensively used by local residents (Figure 1). Within or closely adjacent to NPR-A there are six communities of mostly Inupiat Eskimos, and several "industrial enclaves". The