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Salmon To Receive Radio Tags This Summer

By Dan Bross

Fairbanks, AK – Since the collapse of the chum and chinook salmon runs in the late 1990s, the need to learn where the fish are migrating and spawning has become a high priority. Biotelemetry is providing scientists with an up-to-the-second answer. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game, along with the National Marine Fisheries Service, will be attaching radio tags to salmon entering the Yukon River this summer, in order to follow their movement throughout the river drainage. John Eiler is a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service, based in Juneau. He has conducted research using biotelemetry for decades, and will be traveling widely this summer to collect another season's worth of data. John spoke with KUAC's Dan Bross by phone from Fairbanks.