Boosted By Global Warming, Voracious Invasive Northern Pike Hammering Southcentral Alaska Native Salmon Fisheries
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The Department of Fish and Game is aggressively trying to control the proliferation of northern pike here. While endemic to much of western and northern Alaska, pike are an invasive species south of the Alaska Range, a 600-mile expanse of mountains stretching from the Canadian border to the Aleutian Island chain. Pike were likely introduced illegally in the 1950s and have since spread throughout much of Southcentral Alaska. Through sustained efforts, Fish and Game has successfully eradicated them on the Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage. But the sharp-toothed apex predators have invaded more than 150 waterways around Anchorage and farther north in the Mat-Su, decimating native fish species as well as local sportfishing lodges and hurting air charter businesses that fly anglers to remote waterways.
Economic studies commissioned by the Mat-Su Borough show that as native fish populations have shrunk, direct spending on sportfishing in Mat-Su has also contracted, falling by 47 percent between 2007 and 2017, a drop from $141 million to $57 million.
Recent scientific studies say the pike problem is likely to get much worse.One peer-reviewed paper, published in the journal Biological Invasions last February, found that as water temperatures warm due to climate change, pike in Southcentral Alaska are becoming hungrier and more aggressive as their metabolisms ramp up. Led by researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the study contrasted the stomach contents of pike found in the Deshka River during the summers of 2021 and 2022 compared to similar samples taken a decade earlier.
Year-old pike were found to have eaten 63 percent more compared to pike in the earlier sampling. Pike of every age were found to have increased consumption rates.Mean air temperatures have warmed by about 3 degrees Fahrenheit in the study area since 1919, including a rise of 0.8 degrees in the past decade. Overall, Alaska is by far the fastest warming state in the nation, warming 4.3 degrees F since 1970. The 49th state is also heating up two to three times faster than the global average.
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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08072026/climate-change-helping-invasive-predator-alaskan-fish/