BETHEL, Alaska (AP) – Recent state data reveals that the number of king salmon returning to an Alaska river has been inflated for decades.

KYUK-AM reports the state now is recommending that the body governing the Bering Sea pollock fishery adopt this new information about the Kuskokwim River. If it does, restrictions on the fleet’s bycatch of king salmon could tighten.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is scheduled to make a decision by Monday on how many king salmon can be caught incidentally by commercial fishing boats targeting pollock in the Bering Sea.

The council oversees those bycatch regulations and can tighten them when king salmon returns to Western Alaska rivers fall below a certain threshold of less than 250,000 king salmon returning to the Kuskokwim River, Upper Yukon River and Unalakleet River combined.

Information from: KYUK-AM, http://www.kyuk.org

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