Salmon Counting · Episode 3 of 8 · 29 min
Drones and AI Are Now Counting Bristol Bay's Salmon
On a Bristol Bay riverbank, a solar-powered box opens each morning, launches a drone on a pre-set path and streams aerial video of red sockeye over sunlit gravel, a view managers never had. The episode tells the story of the Wood River 'drone-in-a-box' pilot and the convergence that made it possible: automated drones, lithium batteries, solar arrays and Starlink Mini for a live feed from the middle of nowhere.
Who's who
- Norm Van Vactor+1 more episodeProject lead and longtime Bristol Bay commercial fisheries figure
- Jessie Sheldon+1 more episodeKDLG reporter who wrote the anchor report
Where it happens
- Wood River, Bristol Bay, AlaskaSite of the drone-in-a-box pilot and the 1955 towers
- Lake Aleknagik, Alaska+2 more episodesLocation of the University of Washington research station
Timeline
- 1955Counting towers begin operating on the Wood River.
- 2024Starlink Mini ships, one of several technologies maturing together.
- Late June-early July 2026Drone-in-a-box unit begins daily 8:30 a.m. automated flights.
- July 8, 2026Alaska Public Media publishes its report on the pilot.
Still debated
The computer-vision model cannot yet count fish reliably on its own and has not been validated against tower counts. Its accuracy compared with decades-old hand counting is the open question.