Wed, 12/16/2020 - 9:10am Sockeye salmon fall onto the sorting belt at Pacific Star Seafoods in Kenai. Processors are among the nearly unanimous opposition to the closure of federal waters of Upper Cook Inlet that was approved by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council on Dec. 7. (Photo/Elizabeth Earl/For the Journal) Even a normal year in Alaska’s fisheries can be full of anticipation, but this year’s pandemic, management snarls and underwhelming salmon returns threw extra knots into the nets for commercial fishermen. Late this year, after a record-breakingly poor season, Cook Inlet commercial fishermen got an extra punch in the gut in the form of a complete closure in the federal waters of the inlet. The North Pacific Fishery Management’ Council’s decision drew outcry from hundreds of commercial fishermen, both about the actual content of the decision and the process in which it was introduced.