News analysis Inefficiency is the bane of business and the boom of local economies. Alaskans in territorial days understood. As Bob Bartlett, the Territory of Alaska’s delegate to the U.S. Senate, observed […]
Fish Econ 101
No growth
The Cook Inlet sport fishing business – its overall value marked by the opening of Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shops in Alaska’s largest city – remains a more than $800 million monster […]
Food security not
On a lopsided vote Monday, the Alaska Board of Fisheries opted against the idea of boosting food security to the top of a list of criteria for allocating salmon in developed areas […]
Fish war redux
The governor who embraced Cook Inlet commercial fishermen is gone. A new governor whose home is in the salmon-starved Matanuska-Susitna Borough at the head of the Inlet is in office. And the […]
Salmon fog
UPDATE: The entire Susitna River drainage has now been closed to king salmon fishing. Speed-dating the news for Alaska salmon 2018 – where down is up and up is down. Here we go: […]
No kings
Snow and ice still cover the tributaries of the Susitna River basin, but already the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is talking about closing the Chinook salmon fishery for the 2018 […]
Selling AK toys
Anchorage’s two biggest outdoor stores are now one, but what it means for the future is unclear. Bass Pro and Cabela’s on Monday announced they’d closed a $5 billion deal for […]
The late arrivals
The rains came to Alaska’s Matanuska-Susitna rivers valley over the weekend. The water in local creeks and rivers rose. And the coho salmon, notorious for sprinting from the oceans to the mountains […]
Endless fish fight
Commercial salmon gillnetters were back at work in Cook Inlet on Wednesday as state fishery managers tried to stem the flow of sockeye salmon into the Kenai River in keeping with the […]
Alaska’s death valley
Four times in the past 10 months, Alaska State Troopers have opened fire to defend themselves or protect others from residents of the Matanuska-Valley. The shootings have left three dead and one […]
