"Doug Vincent-Lang"

State officials say they could avoid closures like this one if the state adopts different management models.

The petition from a Washington-based conservancy group is just the first major step in a longer regulatory process, but many say it could have far-reaching implications.

The plan could close fishing for seven more years and open the door for hatcheries. In villages along the river, tribal leaders say the state has cut them out of the process.

After a two-year-long lawsuit, personal watercraft like Jet Skis are once again banned on Kachemak Bay.

The Alaska Federation of Natives is the latest party to side with the federal government. A federal judge last week granted AFN’s request to intervene in the case.   

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has again rejected a request to put them on the Endangered Species List.

A federal appeals panel issued a last-second ruling, reversing a lower court ruling that would have kept the $85 million industry off the water.

That principle requires the state to manage its resources sustainably, and the plaintiff had argued that salmon declines in Western and Interior Alaska were evidence that the state was failing to meet its constitutional obligation.

The set-netters were shut down early this year for the fourth year in a row.

The conflict over subsistence has been brewing for a few decades.