ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Tribal organizations and fishing groups in Alaska are urging federal fishery managers to drastically reduce the number of king salmon allowed to be inadvertently caught by commercial pollock trawlers each year.

The coalition wants the allowable caps of chinook salmon cut by 60 percent in western Alaska rivers during times of weak runs. The groups say scores of Alaska Native subsistence fishermen are forced to go without much of their traditional and critical source of food because of tight restrictions imposed during poor salmon runs in recent years.

"You don't see any activities of people going out fishing for salmon like they used to," Myron Naneng Sr., president of the Association of Village Council Presidents, said Thursday. "In essence, the family structure is being destroyed because of this lack of activity."

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