Court Rules Against WFC in Southeast Alaska Fishery Case
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of Southeast Alaska commercial trollers in a case involving a lawsuit by the Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC) in Seattle that hoped to stop a fishery in order to provide more fish for endangered killer whales in Puget Sound.
The fishery is now set to begin July 1.
The lawsuit had threatened to close the lucrative summer and winter salmon fisheries, which are major contributors to the Southeast Alaska economy.
The appeals court found that Judge Richard Jones in the Western District Court of Washington was in error when he vacated portions of a 2019 Southeast Alaska biological opinion that allowed for commercial king salmon trolling in that area, even if that document was flawed.
The appeals court also said that the state of Al...