Author: Joe Viechnicki, KFSK

Attorneys in a federal criminal case are arguing over the search warrants that led to an arrest and the seizure of methamphetamine in a Petersburg home last April.

In two years, anglers sport fishing from a boat in Southeast Alaska will be required to have a device on board for releasing rockfish well below the surface. That’s already a requirement for the charter boat fleet. Alaska’s Board of Fisheries made the change during their meeting in Sitka in January.

Commercial crabbers in Southeast Alaska will have some opportunity to fish in offshore waters for king and Tanner crab fishing following decisions by Alaska’s Board of Fisheries in January. The board didn’t go for other changes to those fisheries proposed by crabbers though.

People catching king crab for personal use throughout Southeast Alaska will be required to obtain a permit and report their catch, a requirement already in place around Juneau. Alaska’s Board of Fisheries in January made that change and voted to lower the daily bag limit for the valuable crab around most of the region.

Commissioners from the U.S. and Canada this week could not agree on the size of catch reductions that fishing fleets in the two countries should take for halibut along the Pacific coast this year.