A commercial fish tending boat ran into a reef on June 25, forcing two native villages on the Kachemak Bay to shut down both commercial and subsistence fishing operations during the peak of the best salmon season in several years. For almost a week, Port Graham and Nanwalek fishermen were prohibited from fishing for fear that the 43-foot American Eagle’s fuel tank might spill into the bay, contaminating fish before nets could be pulled. The ban had serious effects on the villages’ economies, which rely almost entirely on the season’s catch. The area was reopened to fishing on Thursday last week, after the season’s peak had passed.
