A federal judge criticized the state Board of Game for failing to adopt 'an articulated and evenly applicable definition of sustained yield.' The case arose when the board rejected an emergency petition from residents of the Yup'ik Eskimo village of Kwethluk for an immediate, limited subsistence hunt of a small caribou herd in the Kilbuck Mountains south west Alaska. Arguing that the hunt would violate the sustained yield standard, and rejected Kwethluk's petition. The judge ruled that a limited hunt for 50 animals would not adversely affect the herd and could therefore proceed.