Tag: litigation

Federal Court Upholds Abundance-Based Management of Halibut Bycatch
13Nov By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Federal Court Upholds Abundance-Based Management of Halibut Bycatch

A federal district court judge has upheld Amendment 123 to the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands Groundfish Fishery Management Plan, keeping in effect the abundance-based management of halibut bycatch by the Amendment 80 fleet. The ruling was handed down Nov. 8 in Anchorage by U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason. The plaintiff in the case, the Groundfish Forum, a non-profit trade organization based in Seattle, represents five companies and 17 trawl catcher-processors that comprise the Amendment 80 sector. The Amendment 80 sector, which harvests groundfish in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI), is governed by the groundfish fishery management plan (FMP) developed by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, pursuant to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Ma...
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Appeals Court Decision Allows SEAK Trollers to Keep Harvesting
21Aug By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Appeals Court Decision Allows SEAK Trollers to Keep Harvesting

Southeast Alaska commercial fishermen facing a potential shutdown of a lucrative salmon fishery are currently free to fish while NOAA Fisheries revises a biological opinion dotted with procedure errors, according to an Aug. 16 ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeals court gives the fisheries service until Dec. 1 to produce a new biological opinion, a decision that brought relief to harvesters, but dismay to the Wild Fish Conservancy in Seattle. However, Alaska Commissioner of Fish and Game Doug Vincent-Lang said that once the new biological opinion is released it's “fresh for litigation” again. Amy Daugherty, executive director of the Alaska Trollers Association in Juneau, said her organization of some 400 fishermen was very relieved “that the district cour...
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Oceana Sues NOAA Fisheries Over Bottom Trawling
21Aug By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Oceana Sues NOAA Fisheries Over Bottom Trawling

International ocean advocacy group Oceana has filed a lawsuit against NOAA Fisheries, claiming that it has failed to meet federal requirements for protecting the ocean floor environment. Oceana, represented by environmental litigation nonprofit Earthjustice, filed its lawsuit Aug. 16 in the U.S. District Court in Anchorage, challenging the fishery service’s approval of amendments to five fishery management plans for fisheries in the North Pacific. The amendments revise plan descriptions of essential fish habitat, which include all types of aquatic habitat where fish breed, spawn, feed or grow to maturity. The lawsuit asks the court to remand the amendments and the environmental assessment supporting those amendments for completion of new amendments that comply with existing federal ...
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Conservationists File to Intervene in Pebble Mine Lawsuit
22May By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Conservationists File to Intervene in Pebble Mine Lawsuit

Over a dozen conservation entities have filed as intervenors in U.S. District Court in Anchorage in a lawsuit filed by a Canadian mining company seeking to overturn a federal decision on Clean Water Act safeguards that would prevent development of the proposed Pebble project. The intervenor litigants, who filed on May 17, contend that development of the copper, gold and molybdenum mine poses environmental danger to the region, its Alaska Native communities, resources, environment and economy. “As businesses that rely on Bristol Bay and its salmon fisheries, we know just how important the EPA’s Clean Water Act protections are,” Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association Executive Director Lilani Dunn said. “Bristol Bay is critical for providing high-quality, sustainable ...
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Judge’s Decision Hands Subsistence Management on Kuskokwim River to Feds
3Apr By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Judge’s Decision Hands Subsistence Management on Kuskokwim River to Feds

A federal court judge in Anchorage has ruled in favor of the Biden administration, giving the federal government authority to give rural residents priority to fish for salmon on the Kuskokwim River, where stocks have dwindled, while the state of Alaska wants the fishery open to all residents. In a decision handed down March 29, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason ruled that the state is enjoined from reinstating Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) actions in 2021 and 2022 on fishing on the Kuskokwim River within the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge. Gleason said the federal government and intervenor-plaintiffs, the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, have shown irreparable harm to enforce rural subsistence priority to federally qualified subsistence ...
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