Fishing communities need state to cast a line for answers

No question last year was pretty miserable for Alaska’s commercial fishing industry — the people who catch and clean salmon; the processors that buy, prep and ship the fish; the communities that depend on the summer jobs and tax revenues.

And no question that this year is looking about as dark, or darker.

The head of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute recently described last year as “rock bottom” for prices paid to fishers and weak markets for processors, later amending that statement to say that this year is scrapping another layer deeper into the bottom.

“Unfortunately, Americans just do...