Date of publication: November 26, 2006
Source: Los Angeles Times
Author: Kenneth R. Weiss
As ocean seafood populations plummet, catching is mostly unhindered -- only Alaska is willing to self-police. Big business is starting to lend a hand.
Fish counters in green rain slickers patrol a narrow channel of glacier-fed river, keeping close tabs on the thousands of salmon that migrate upstream to spawn.
Elsewhere along the coast, observation teams slosh through waterways in waders, carrying rifles to ward off aggressive bears. Still others monitor the migration from low-flying planes, or take inventory at fish weirs and atop counting towers placed strategically throughout the wilds of Alaska as part of an elaborate surveillance of returning fish...