ANCHORAGE - State prosecutors are disputing religious protection claims by Alaska Native fishermen cited for illegal fishing who say bans on their subsistence lifestyle violate their spiritual freedoms.

...Peter Pan Seafoods and Unisea, plus Japanese importers Okaya, Nichirei, Nichiro, and Nippon Suisan Kaisha. Attorneys for the fishermen said market forces could not explain why the fishermen's share of profits diminished. "There was not solid...

About 4,500 commercial fishermen will receive an estimated average of $2,145 each as part of a $40 million settlement fund generated in the Bristol Bay salmon antitrust case. Lawyers and fish processors will get about three-quarters of the money. As part of an agreement to wrap up the eight-year class-action case, lawyers for the fishermen have agreed not to appeal their May trial loss.

...about 15 percent of Trident's processed seafood, Bundrant said. Answering questions from Stephan Susman, an attorney for the fishermen, Bundrant acknowledged that his company and other processors verified prices with each other between 1989 and...

ANCHORAGE - Attorneys in a price-fixing lawsuit argued Wednesday about documents showing a processor of Bristol Bay sockeye salmon made slim profits on 220 million pounds of fish. Trident Seafoods calculated that fishermen from 1989 through 1995 earned an average of 53 cents a pound on frozen sockeye sold in Japan, compared to a 7-cent-a-pound profit for the company.

ANCHORAGE - Jurors in the Bristol Bay sockeye salmon price fixing case will begin deliberations Friday, the judge said Wednesday. The trial is winding to a close after more than three months of testimony in the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Peter A. Michalski.