SHORELINE PROTECTION

The Lower Kenai River's two biggest sport fisheries are King salmon and Sockeye salmon. Each of these fisheries creates its own impacts on the river, as explained below.

The King salmon of the Kenai River are huge. Boats are usually used to fish for King Salmon here because the Kings generally hold and travel in the deeper waters nearer to the center of the river. But there is also a second very good reason for using a boat. Even if you manage to hook a trophy King from shore, it is extremely unlikely that you will successfully land it; perhaps 1 in 100 are successfully landed from shore.

Because it takes a boat to land a King, on a busy July day, there can be several hundred boats on the Lower River pursuing these trophy fish. All these boats create a problem along the shorelines. The wakes from all these big riverboats constantly wash over the shoreline, and seriously erode any areas unprotected by vegetative cover.

Since 1986 boat motor restrictions have been in effect. One restriction limits the boat motors to 35 horsepower to help reduce boat wake damage to the river banks. A second restriction is that there are some sections of the river where motors are not allowed. (These sections were not necessarily closed to motors in order to protect the shoreline, but that has been one of the beneficial affects.)

Sockeye salmon fishing creates and even greater impact on the riverbanks. Thousands of fishermen line the Kenai River's banks to catch these wonderful fish. The Sockeye migrate very close to the banks as they head upriver for the spawning beds, making bank fishing for them much more effecive than fishing for them from a boat. All these people trampling the streamside vegetation and clambering into and out of the water soon denude the shoreline vegetation. In some areas the banks turn to mud. Erosion increases. Powerboat wakes that hit a denuded shoreline cause even more severe erosion. Amazingly, where riverbank vegetation is thick and healthy, the powerboat wakes create very little erosion. Thus, the Sockeye fishermen damage the protective vegetative cover, and the King salmon fishermen's boats wash the soil away. All this sediment entering the river can ruin prime salmon rearing habitat. Also loss of shoreline vegetation removes hiding places for salmon fry and outmigrating smolt.

In order to protect riverbanks from trampling, the ADF&G (Alaska Department of Fish and Game) has done two things: First, they required campgrounds, RV parks, and resorts that offer public river access to install elevated walkways--usually made from open-faced steel grating (see photos this page)--for fishermen to fish from, thus avoiding the trampling of shoreline vegetation. Secondly, they have closed certain shorelines to bank fishing, or fishing within 10 feet of the river bank, from July 1 to August 15 of each year. To learn more about what shorelines are closed, and what areas remain open to bank fishing during this time period, read the special ADFG publication here.

Ask any person who has fished the Kenai River for a couple of decades, and they will tell you that these shoreline protection measures have been wildly successful. Areas that were once totally denuded now support luxuriant shoreline vegetation. Sure the protection measures create some inconvenience for fishermen, but they are well worth the inconvenience if they help us preserve this most special river and its incredible fish productivity. Kudos to ADFG for this excellent program. Please do your part by respecting and abiding by the shoreline protection measures.