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Care much about the decline of Alaska's king salmon and halibut? I do. You do, and protecting Alaska's fish and clean water is why you voted in 2006 for strict water quality standards to prevent cruise ship companies from dumping poorly treated, damaging copper and by products from human waste — 20,000 gallons of inadequately treated discharge at a time — into our fishing waters. Unfortunately the Governor and GOP-led House passed a bill last week to weaken this voter initiative.

I'm not a big fan of reversing voter-passed initiatives, or of endangering Alaska fish, including king salmon and halibut which we are losing in numbers far too fast. The desire to protect Alaska's world class fishing — from the Yukon to the Kenai Peninsula, Kodiak and across the state — binds us together as Alaskans.

The next step is to hope the Senate won't agree with what Governor Parnell and the House pushed.

Read the full story at Juneau Empire>>

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