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The Ninilchik Traditional Council has for years been seeking approval to use a more effective method for catching their subsistence allocation of sockeye salmon on the Kenai River and late last week, they got that opportunity.

On July 27, the Federal Subsistence Board approved the tribe’s emergency special action request to operate a community subsistence set net fishery on the Kenai.

Approval came after a lawsuit filed in 2015.

But the change has drawn stiff opposition from other fishermen and fisheries managers who worry about the new gear type’s potential effect on king salmon and trout.

As of July 31, the Ninilchik tribe had harvested 33 sockeye since they began fishing on July 28.

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