
Southeast Alaska commercial fishermen facing a potential shutdown of a lucrative salmon fishery received a boost from a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on Aug. 16 that leaves them free to fish while the National Marine Fisheries Service revises a biological opinion dotted with procedural errors.
The appeals court gave the service until Dec. 1 to produce a new biological opinion, a decision that brought relief to harvesters and dismay to the Wild Fish Conservancy in Seattle.
Still, Alaska Commissioner of Fish and Game Doug Vincent-Lang said that “once the new biological opinion is released, it’s fresh for litigation again.”
Alaska Trollers Association Executive Director Amy Daugherty said her Juneau-based organization of some 400 fishermen was very relieved “that the district court has the wisdom to reverse the lower court’s decision, because the impact would be disastrous for the entire region.”
“I was hopeful that that would be the outcome,” she said.
The appeals court judges said that the NMFS was committed to fixing errors in its original biological opinion.
The court noted that even the Wild Fish Conservancy’s experts conceded the economic impact of closing down the fishery, with a potential loss of millions of dollars for fishermen and their communities.
Wild Fish Conservancy Executive Director Emma Helverson said her organization would continue to take every action necessary to ensure the management of that fishery doesn’t continue to harm salmon recovery, ecosystems and coastal communities.
“The court’s decision prioritizing the economic interests of one Alaskan industry over the coastwide recovery of Chinook, the survival of the Southern Resident orcas and the cultural heritage of ecosystems and communities from Oregon to British Columbia is disappointing to say the least,” Helverson said.
“However,” she added, “the facts and science remain clear and I’ve never been more optimistic as certifiers, consumers and communities rise up to demand sustainable and equitable harvest management that will bring their salmon home.”
Tim Bristol, executive director of SalmonState, a nonprofit dedicated to protection of wild salmon and their habitat, said the Ninth Circuit Court’s ruling “shows the Wild Fish Conservancy’s attempt to shut down all Chinook fishing by Alaska hook-and-line trollers was the wrong diagnosis and the wrong prescription for the endangered Southern Resident Orca’s future survival.”
“The court rightly found the federal government is already working to update the science around the Southeast Alaska troll fishery, which we already know has little impact on SRKW,” Bristol said.
“The judges also found that the lower court also failed to adequately consider the serious economic and social impacts the WFC’s call for a shutdown of Chinook trolling would have on Southeast Alaskans,” he added.
“Alaska’s fishermen are grateful that the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court was able to see through the Wild Fish Conservancy’s misinformation and flawed rationale and was able to approach this incredibly complex issue through a more holistic and factual lens,” Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association Executive Director Linda Behnken said. “We are also deeply grateful to NMFS, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the Alaska Trollers Association for all of the time and hard work that they have put into protecting and upholding the data that clearly shows that Southeast Alaska’s sustainable hook-and line troll fishery is not causing harm to Chinook or the Southern Resident Killer Whale population.”
The state’s congressional delegation, which consists of Republican U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola, had filed two amicus briefs in support of the commercial salmon harvesters. They heralded the Ninth Circuit Court’s decision.
“Although we’re not home yet, the most important thing right now is that Southeast Alaska’s troll fishery can continue,” Murkowski said. “This is a critical industry for Southeast Alaska that has minimal impact on the ecosystem, and the congressional delegation, state, tribal groups and local environmental groups are all united in their advocacy to allow the fishery to resume.”
She expressed hope that the NMFS’ new biological opinion would put the matter to rest.
Sullivan, who described the WFC lawsuit as “outrageous,” said he was grateful for the ruling, to give those engaged in that fishery greater peace of mind.
While the industry is not in the clear yet, it does offer relief to fishermen, fishing families and the economy, Peltola said.