Fleet reduction in Bristol Bay?

The Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association is conducting an "informal poll" of drift gillnetters on the idea of a permit buyback.

The association has told its members to expect a letter from the board very soon.

Bristol Bay, of course, is Alaska's most important commercial salmon fishery, attracting hundreds of gillnet boats each summer.

The BBRSDA works to advance the fishery in a number of ways, and relies on a landings tax the drift fleet self-imposed in 2006.

Bristol Bay setnetters rejected the tax and aren't part of the association.