This grant will address threats on the cook inlet chinook salmon population, a salmon stock of concern for sport, commercial, and subsistence fisheries

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded $3,819,956 to the Tyonek Tribal Conservation District on October 1, 2025, under the Pacific Salmon Treaty Program (CFDA 11.438) to eradicate Chinook salmon predators and modernize data collection systems that inform fishery management decisions in Cook Inlet, Alaska. The work addresses threats to Cook Inlet Chinook salmon, a stock of concern for sport, commercial, and subsistence fisheries, and runs through September 30, 2029. Performance occurs in Anchorage, Alaska. The Tyonek Tribal Conservation District, a tribal non-profit formed in 2005 to conserve and enhance natural resources in the West Cook Inlet region, serves the Native Village of Tyonek and conducts salmon habitat restoration, fish passage improvement, invasive species monitoring, and aquatic ecosystem protection. The award supports the federal government's international commitments under the Pacific Salmon Treaty and responds to threats that, without intervention, would reduce fisheries-related employment, limit accurate data available to fisheries managers, curtail fishing opportunities in Cook Inlet, and cause economic loss to local communities.

The purpose of this financial award is to eradicate chinook salmon predators and modernize data collection that informs fishery management decisions. Healthy and sustainable populations of pacific salmon are key to the U.S. Commercial fisheries and to the integrity of the domestic seafood supply chain. If this action is not approved, threats to pacific salmon will continue to increase, there will be a reduction in fisheries-related jobs, a reduction in accurate data available to fisheries managers on which to make decisions, reduced FI shing opportunities within the cook inlet of alaska, and an economic loss to local communities.