A coalition of salmon advocacy groups in Western Alaska are asking the US government to impose tighter restrictions for bottom trawling in the region.

Public radio station KYUK, in Bethel, Alaska, reports that the Kuskokwim River Salmon Management Working Group, which is comprised of multiple organizations, drafted a letter earlier this month to federal fisheries managers and Alaska's congressional delegation asking them to address the impacts of trawling of the region's coast.

"Trawlers, they pull billions of pounds, literally billions of pounds of biomass out of the Bering Sea every year, and when they say 'No, that's not making an effect on subsistence resources,' I don't believe that," working group member Kevin Whitworth told the station.

The request comes after multiple bottom trawling vessels were seen in the area on marine traffic websites earlier this year. Bottom trawl vessels are allowed to fish 25 miles from coastal communities near the mouth of the Kuskokwim River, according to KYUK, although the letter drafted by the salmon working group asks for the area to be extended.