By Jim Magowan
Turnagain Times Correspondent

Compared to species such as salmon and trout, the hooligan or eulachon is a mystery fish. Most people's knowledge of the hooligan seems limited to the fact that they migrate from salt water into streams and rivers during April and May to spawn.

During this migration they can be scooped up into dipnets.

Hooligan contain a lot of oil that was widely bartered among native tribes long before white people came to the Greatland.

Hooligan oil is recognized as a potent anti-oxidant; according to some, superior to other fish oils.

In the spring of 1965, at the end of his first year teaching in Ketchikan, this reporter was introduced to hooligan. During lunch a fellow teacher announced, “The hooligan are here; the boats came in last night.” Other teachers explained to the neophytes that the hooligan was fish smelt and there was no need to rush home and lock up the women and children to keep them safe.

Neophytes were advised to take a bucket down to the dock where, for a buck, it would be filled with hooligan from a loaded seiner. Without hooligan runs in its streams, hooligan was strictly ‘buck a bucket' fare in Ketchikan.

A few years later in Anchorage, filling the bucket was a matter of personal effort (effort is the operant term) at Twentymile River.

In late April or early May, dipnetters line the north shore of Turnagain Arm and the mouth of Twentymile Mile River, sifting through the silty water to harvest a bounty of the six to ten inch long hooligan (aka eulachon, ooligan, candle fish).

“Are the numbers of hooligan lower than they were in the past?” asked one Turnagain fisherman as he scooped hooligan from the silt clouded water. “That's what some people have told me.”

In Alaska, hooligan is a personal use fishery (not to be confused with a subsistence fishery). Alaskans are permitted to take as many hooligan as they want for personal use during the April 1 through May 31 salt water season (Turnagain Arm and Twentymile River) which extends through June 15 in fresh water in the Twentymile River.

Today's no limit personal fishery is a change from the 200 a day limit back in the ‘70s.

“The fishery does not seem to take enough fish to have much effect on the population,” said Rob Spengler, a fisheries biologist with the U.S. Forest Service, who has done extensive research on hooligan in Turnagain Arm. “No research supports reducing the catch.”

Removing the limit may be pragmatic, as well. Where are you going to find a game warden with 200 toes and fingers to count them on?

“The answer to many questions about hooligan is, “We don't know,” Spenglar said. “Seventy years of research have produced a lot of information about salmon, but not nearly as much about hooligan because they do not affect nearly as many people.”

While there is no limit on how many hooligan can be caught for personal use in Alaska, in Washington, Oregon and California hooligan, as of May 17, are on the endangered species list.

According to Spengler, hooligan runs are not as predictable as runs of other anadromous fish such as salmon. A stream or river can have a heavy run one year and almost no fish the next. And hooligan may not always return to the stream where they were hatched.

“Back in the 80s, there were no hooligan in the Chilkat River at Haines for a few years; then they returned,” Spengler said. “Maybe they just went to a different river.”

There also is not as much genetic data available for hooligan as for salmon. Spengler explained that existing data suggests that while salmon tend to be genetically similar to other salmon in the same stream, but genetically different from salmon in other streams, hooligan seem to be genetically the same from one stream to another; an indication hooligan going to Twentymile may have hatched in other streams and vice versa.

In Southcentral Alaska there are runs on the Kenai and Russian Rivers as well as across the inlet in the Susitna River. The lack of stream fidelity might mean hooligan could all ‘decide' to go to the Kenai River instead of some going to Twentymile one year. This would produce a great run in the Kenai and none in Twentymile.

Could the hooligan lack of stream fidelity account for the decline in hooligan runs in California, Oregon and Washington?

“Probably not,” Spengler said. “While people tend to look at Hooligan in fresh water streams and rivers because that is where they encounter them, after about eight weeks in fresh water, after hatching, hooligan spend their lives in the sea until they return to fresh water to spawn. Marine conditions probably have the most impact on them.”

Spengler explained one hypothesis. The current from Japan splits with one branch going south toward California; the other branch comes up to Alaska. Conditions in the south flowing branch may account for the decline in hooligan from Washington to California while conditions in the north flowing branch support the health of Alaska hooligan. Stocks off the British Columbia coast seem to be mixed, which could support this hypothesis.

The scarcity of comprehensive genetic data makes it impossible to determine if the hooligan in the northern current are different than those in the southern current indicating they are two separate populations. This is a topic for additional research.

Spengler mentioned that hooligan runs in the Unuk River, near Ketchikan (where the ‘buck a bucket' fish came from in the 60s) have not returned. Some believe the river has been over fished. Biologists are not convinced this is the case. The Unuk held up to heavy harvest by seiners for many years. The situation may be a repeat of the Haines experience. The hooligan may just be going somewhere else for a while.

There is a difference in the descriptions of what has happened with the southern hooligan and the disappearance of runs in some northern streams. In Washington, runs seem to be smaller, consistent with a drop in overall population. The Unuk and Haines runs are described as having stopped rather than just getting smaller. This may indicate that what is happening is different in the Unuk than in the Columbia.

The type of fishing allowed for hooligan is not clear to many people. Hooligan being a personal use (not subsistence) fishery, open only to Alaska residents holding a valid resident fishing license. Out of state residents may not participate or help in any way with harvesting personal use hooligan (a son who lives out of state could be fined for carrying dad's bucket of fish to the car).

“You can also sports fish for them in the ‘other fish' category,” said Chuck Brazil, an Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist. “Of course you would need an awfully small hook.”

Gathering along waterways to net migrating hooligan has a long history. The spring hooligan migration ends the lean winter for many animals and has even been credited with a role in the survival of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

An important link in the food chain, animals ranging from gulls to beluga whales to bald eagles feed upon hooligan.

Hooligan runs are often signaled by the presence of birds which was apparent last week (May 16). People churned the water beside the road with their nets, as gulls and a couple of bald eagles covered a sand bar in the middle of the Arm. Belugas were probably feeding on hooligan farther down the Arm.

A small fish with a big impact, the hooligan is an important link in the Turnagain Arm's thriving ecosystem.