The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is once again proactively closing all beaches on the Cook Inlet side of the Kenai Peninsula to sport or personal use clamming throughout the calendar year 2019.

In a series of announcements last week, the department noted that while recruitment of new clams into the adult population is growing, surveys show that the razor clams have not fully rebounded from the declines that started in 2009.

Like last year and the year before, opening the beaches to sport and recreational clamming would likely delay the recovery of the population.

Causes of the razor clam decline are still not fully understood but may include a combination of heavy surf, habituate changes, environmental stressors and increased predation.

New surveys are planned for the Ninilchik and Clam Gulch beach for this spring to assess the stock’s abundance.

Meanwhile, retention of Arctic char and Dolly Varden will continue to be prohibited in Stormy Lake to continue the restoration of native fish stocks.

The same goes sport angling for the East and West Mackey, Sevena, Union and Derks lakes, where fishing is allowed, but retention is still prohibited to allow for a revival of the native fish.

All these lakes had the pesticide Rotenone applied in an effort to kill off invasive pike.

The closures for clamming and angling in area lakes are in effect throughout calendar year 2019.

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