When Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka won in an auction an experience on a small family fishing set-net in Cook Inlet with former Lt. Gov. Loren Leman and his wife Carolyn, she was eager to go. She took her children with her so they could see how some smaller fishing operations work.
But one of her social media posts caught the eye of opponents to her campaign, and she has ended up with a $270 fine, because even as a guest on the boat, she needed to have a commercial fishing crew license.
Tshibaka said she acknowledges the decision and will pay the citation, but she said the statute has an exemption for visitors or guests, and even though she touched some salmon being harvested, they were not fish that were sold.
Troopers were shown the video that her campaign posted on social media in July and opened up the investigation.
