Through the history of salmon management AK is treated differently. A US Commissioner to PST once asked if AK and the US could agree on a point. Nobody but them catches their fish so nobody has a hammer.

Notice that for many listed fish down here NOAA bases management on "Southern Exploitation Rate". That would be south of BC; north they get a pass.

AK has, or had, an outsized political pressure they can wield in Congress, The fish pay for it while we all head north to catch them before they "count".