Alaskan river closed to fishing

Federal and state managers have ordered Alaska’s Kuskokwim River closed to fishing for three days starting Sunday, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

The closure is intended to rebuild the declining salmon runs of Western Alaska. Native residents caught the first King Salmon just last week.

The closure was imposed for the first time last year, and was mired in conflict between the two levels of government. This year, federal managers worked more closely with the state.

The decline in salmon runs began about 10 years ago but biologists don’t know the exact cause.