The decline of salmon in western Alaska's rivers has become one of the main issues in the state's close US Senate contest, NPR reports, in a piece by Alaska Public Media's Liz Ruskin.
Too few salmon now return to rivers such as the Kuskokwim, and agencies often close them even to people who fish to feed their families. Many residents blame offshore pollock trawlers, which catch king salmon and other fish by accident, a problem known as bycatch, and the issue now features heavily in campaign advertising.
Republican Senator Dan Sullivan, seen as an ally of the pollock industry, is promoting a bill he describes as the most comprehensive bycatch legislation yet. His Democratic challenger, Mary Peltola, who is from the Kuskokwim, says she would ban factory trawlers. The result could help decide control of the Senate.
Source: NPR
