Wildlife Troopers cited a Bellingham fisherman for allegedly fishing in Bristol Bay

Somewhere along an invisible line in the water off Bristol Bay, a fisherman allegedly dropped his net where he wasn't supposed to — and a trooper was there to catch it.

Justin Charles Ridley, 29, of Bellingham, Washington, faces a commercial fishing citation after Alaska Wildlife Troopers alleged he fished across a closed-water boundary along the South Line of the Egegik District on June 26. The citation is an accusation, and Ridley is presumed innocent.

That invisible line is the whole game in Bristol Bay. This is the largest sockeye salmon fishery on Earth, where tens of millions of fish surge back to spawn in a matter of weeks and a fleet of boats races to catch them in the same short window. It only works because managers draw hard boundaries — closed waters that let enough fish slip through to reach the rivers and reproduce — and open the grounds in tightly controlled windows. Cross the line, and you're taking fish the run was counting on.

That's why troopers ride the fishery at its peak, patrolling lines most people would never see.