Here's an extended version of a phone interview I had with Palin rural adviser John Moller yesterday.

I'm still looking for an answer to one of the biggest questions: How is the state going to react to the Marshall subsistence fishing protest?

That one's a pickle -- do you ignore blatant illegal fishing or do you cite fishermen who say they're taking a stand to feed their village and shared the fish with elders. What's that say to fishermen in other Yukon villages, or, say, the fishermen getting fines for catching salmon along Ship Creek?

Anyway, I talked to Moller before he'd had a chance to get back to work. He said he's been on a boat trip, fishing out of cell phone range, and hadn't been briefed on the protest. We planned to talk about it today, but I couldn't reach him by my deadline and am out of time.

Here's the interview. I know it's long, but it has more detail than the excerpts published in the paper Friday.

Q. So you’ve got this protest out there, what happens now? There had been talk of civil disobedience for awhile … and here’s someone who actually went out and did it. From the state’s point of view, how do you deal with something like that?
A. I don’t know, to be quite honest with you … I haven’t, I haven’t been faced with it obviously in the past, and I haven’t talked with anybody at the state in terms of this issue. I don’t know what protocol is … to tell you the truth.

Q. Do you have any message for other villages? People who saw what Marshall did and might be tempted to do the same — regardless of what the restrictions are, go out and get their king salmon?
A. What I will say is that when I was in Emmonak and there was a meeting down there, there was no talk, with the general public that is, that (they) had any intentions of going out there and breaking the — the you know — the management that currently is in place. That’s what I heard from Emmonak.
Obviously I can’t encourage it. They put these management strategies in place for a reason … and I’m not one to question that.

Q. You can’t encourage it … I mean, can you understand it? Or do you sympathize with it at all?
A. You know … All I can say is I can’t encourage it and, I don’t know what else to say on that. The management is in place for a reason and some of it has to do with international (treaties).

Q. The governor had, on her Twitter account, written these reports about good news from the Yukon. She wrote that you’d been talking to someone with CNN out there and had good news to report, including that maybe 50 percent of the people in Emmonak had gotten their subsistence goals met so far. Where did that information come from?

A. Some of it, not knowing all of what you’re referring to. I did an interview with CNN while I was out there. Very brief, a couple of questions. Very brief. Some of the information I gave them was just based on my trip. One was with respect to 50 or more percent of the folks, in the Lower Yukon, anyways, getting their subsistence needs for the year in terms of salmon, came from my visit.
A couple of people mentioned at the subsistence, the federal subsistence board meeting, the public meeting there in Emmonak, that if I recall it was 50 or more percent have gotten it. Gotten their subsistence needs. And then many, many more people I talked to over the course of a couple days there had either gotten their subsistence … or were partially there in terms of getting what they traditionally use.

Q. That ended up being attributed to Nicholas Tucker who has become kind of a big voice out there in Emmonak. He’s the one who wrote the letter that got a lot of attention. Was he the one who told you that that 50 percent of the people had met their, their needs — their subsistence needs.
(Note: Tucker says he never said that and demanded an apology. He got one, in an e-mail from Moller Thursday. Tucker replied in an e-mail of his own, calling Moller a "man of honor.")
A. You know Nick Tucker and I had a number of conversations over the, over the course of a couple of the days. And I don’t know if that was Nick, if he mentioned it specifically. I know there was a fisherman, I’d have to go back and look at my notes, that mentioned it at the subsistence board meetings. And a number of folks over the course of the next day that mentioned to me that you know, quite a few of them had gotten, gotten their subsistence needs. … (Palin spokeswoman Sharon Leighow) mentioned it to me that Nick Tucker -- was, was referenced as the source of information on that 50 percent and if ... I made that assertion and that’s not correct, I’ll have to call Nick and tell him I’m sorry. But I talked to many, many people over those two days … and I heard it on numerous occasions that people were getting their needs.

Q. The people concerned about the Yukon king run have been concerned for a long time. Those passions have not really cooled . Why do you think there’s been that continued tension?
A. Well one of the catalysts to the emotions is, many people don’t believe that the North Pacific council motion went far enough.
In other words, we’re being asked to conserve for the health of this resource — and they don’t feel that the council motion was doing that in terms of other sectors of the industry.
(Note: The council oversees the Bering Sea pollock industry, which many Yukon River fishermen blame for dwindling king stocks. The council voted to limit how many salmon the industry can waste, though the cap isn’t as tough as many villages asked for.)

Q. Do you think the council motion went far enough?
A. What I think is, and I’ve said this before, is this is the first time they’ve gone anywhere with it. There’s been no limit on it in the past. So that in itself is a milestone. It’s been a long time in the works. And there are some tools in the motion … that have the opportunity to have a significant savings with the king salmon.
Whether or not it comes to fruitation, won’t be known until it’s implemented.

Q.Do you think the state should have pushed for a tougher cap, tougher restrictions?
A. Well, you know, I think it’s more complicated than that. We could have went with… the state could have probably pushed for lower numbers, but again, just a hard cap in itself is not in my view, the right management tool because it doesn’t account for when we have low stocks.
The motion as I understand it now will take into account, with this performance standard, will take into account when we have lower stocks, lower returns.
… Set aside the actual number on there… the motion, the other tools in the motion have an opportunity to have a Chinook savings.

Q. Is there a way to find common ground, can this administration find common ground with groups like rural subsistence fishermen considering that the governor doesn’t support a rural preference? Is there a way to bridge that gap?
A. Well to be fair here, there have been many governors that haven’t supported a rural preference, nor does our constitution. So I think that has to be spelled out pretty clear. This governor maybe I just didn’t pay as much attention in previous administrations, but certainly a lot of attention there.
…I’m not convinced that everybody that -- that you’re hearing from everybody in terms of what they feel about the subsistence. … hearing from some other folks out there. With all due respect to Nick Tucker, everybody else -- everybody doesn’t have that opinion. And, I just use Nick Tucker, I mean there’s others out there that have similar views as Nick. I don’t, necessarily, in all cases. Nor am I finding that many others don’t necessarily feel that same way. Their needs are being met. They just -- We just don’t hear from those folks.
I hear from them when I’m on the ground out there, but they don’t call you.

Q. Is there any conventional wisdom why we’re hearing bout lousy king runs all over the state except the Kuskokwim River? When you talk to people on the Kuskokwim they say they’re doing well. … Why is that?
A. There’s a much bigger picture here than the trawlers and the Bering Sea. Are the trawlers part of it? Sure. Is global warming part of it? Probably. There’s a much bigger issue out there. And I’m just listening. I’m relaying to you what some (Yukon River) elders told me and I tend to agree with them that there’s factors out there that we don’t even have a clue about, that is affecting the Chinook salmon. We had some disease in some of the animals, some of the fish and that contributes to some of it. But even the elders say we got to put some controls on, where we can put controls on it, but there’s a bigger picture out there.