Koyuk, Alaska, United States


Fish



Trent Sutton

Fairbanks Alaska, United States
Professor of Fisheries Biology Fisheries
UAF, University of Alaska Fairbanks

That is certainly a burbot. I have had two burbot projects over the past couple of years, one in Copper and Tanana Lakes down in the Copper River drainage and a more recent one in the Gulkana/Copper rivers (Copper River drainage) and Chena/Tanana/Yukon rivers (Yukon River drainage). The Yukon River sampling took place much further upstream for your site. Both projects are in their final stages of analysis and I am hopeful that we will be able to share our study results in the coming months once we have completed final reports. With that said, most of the burbot movement studies have taken place in the Yukon River several decades ago, so there is a need for more research. Certainly the lower Yukon River as well as the Kuskokwim River would provide could locations for any new burbot research. I also have a new project starting in the Prudhoe Bay region and there have been recent reports of burbot being caught up there. I suspect that we will continue to see changes in species distributions as the climate continues to change.

Photo by Elaine Kimoktoak