Cook Inlet commercial salmon industry scores huge victory as judge grants restraining order

The 12-page ruling says the Alaska Board of Fisheries lacked an "emergency" basis to enact late-minute regulations that drift gillnetters said could have cut their catch by up to half this season.

It's a defeat for the state as well as the Kenai River Sportfishing Association, which jumped into the case as an intervenor.

Crew safe after seiner sinks near Valdez

The U.S. Coast Guard reports the purse seiner Lively Jane hit a submerged rock and sank this morning in Anderson Bay, six miles southwest of Valdez.

The five crewmen were able to climb aboard a skiff before the seiner went down, the Coast Guard says.

As always, the cause is said to be "under investigation."

The owner of the 56-foot Lively Jane is listed in state records as Jon L. Andrews Jr. of Seward.