(SitNews) - Earlier this month, the Federal Court in the Western District of Washington ruled in favor of the Wild Fish Conservancy in a brief order adopting the Report and Recommendation from a magistrate assigned to hear the case. This case is a challenge to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Biological Opinion (BiOp) for the Southeast Alaska salmon fishery – the document that gives Alaska Endangered Species Act (ESA) "incidental take" coverage and allows our Pacific Salmon Treaty salmon fisheries to operate. The State of Alaska and Alaska Trollers Association (ATA) intervened in the case to defend Alaska's fisheries and interests.

The lawsuit was brought by the Wild Fish Conservancy, a conservation organization based in Washington State. The suit specifically attacks Alaska's management of its Chinook salmon fisheries under the Pacific Salmon Treaty. The lawsuit argues that Alaska fisheries threaten the survival of several ESA-listed Chinook salmon stocks in Washington and Oregon, and the endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales that depend on Chinook salmon for food. Judge Jones supported their claims. It does not attack similar fisheries that occur off the coasts of Washington and Oregon, despite similar impacts.

Present Situation: According to the Alaska Dept of Fish and Game, the magistrate has been directed to consider potential remedies to his ruling. This is important as it will determine what happens next for Alaska's fisheries. It is our understanding that the State and ATA will be given an opportunity to provide briefings on the remedy. The best-case scenario would be for the court to give NMFS time to rework their flawed BiOp without vacating the current incidental take coverage. This would allow fisheries to continue while NMFS corrects its mistakes. The worst-case scenario is that the incidental take coverage is determined to be flawed and Alaska loses its ability to prosecute its Treaty salmon fisheries until a new BiOp is prepared.

Doug Vincent-Lang, Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, issued a statment writing "We disagree with the ruling and are considering an appeal. We have a responsibility to look out for our fisheries and the Southeast coastal communities and families that rely on them."

Vincent-Lang added, "The State of Alaska abides by the terms of the Pacific Salmon Treaty and the Biological Opinion that is tied to it and it is troubling that this ruling singles out our fisheries. We will be looking at our options in the coming weeks. In the meantime, Southeast Alaska salmon fisheries will proceed as normal."

Quoting a news release from the ADF&G, the Wild Fish Conservancy disputed the provision of the BiOp that required over $100 million of federal funding be provided for mitigation actions to support Chinook salmon hatchery production to increase prey for killer whales, Puget Sound habitat restoration, and Puget Sound conservation hatcheries. These actions not only allow Alaska fisheries to continue in the face of ESA concerns, but also provide mitigation to allow salmon fisheries in the lower 48 to proceed.

"Alaska should not be expected to be solely responsible for remedy", said Vincent-Lang. "What is good for the goose is good for the gander. If this decision sticks, we will be looking at having all fisheries that affect these salmon being treated equally under the law."

Alaska fishermen and conservation groups called a recent Washington federal court ruling that is requiring more review of the impacts of Chinook salmon harvest by Alaska trollers on endangered Puget Sound killer whales a “dangerous distraction,” and “scapegoating at its worst.” The August 8th ruling in the suit, filed by the Washington-based Wild Fish Conservancy, will likely mean more environmental analysis of the impacts of Southeast Alaska’s highly regulated hook and line fishing for Chinook salmon, leading to more uncertainty for small-boat fishermen throughout the region. 

“The Wild Fish Conservancy is singling out Alaska’s small-boat fishing families while ignoring the much larger issues threatening Puget Sound’s Chinook stocks and the southern resident orca population, including dams, ever expanding urbanization and habitat degradation, marine mammal predation, including - ironically - other populations of orca, and climate change,” said Amy Daugherty, Executive Director of Alaska Trollers Association.

“It’s unfortunate that the Wild Fish Conservancy is going after the people who are most invested in the future survival of wild salmon. Southeast Alaska’s small-boat fishing families are some of the biggest advocates for wild salmon - regardless of where those salmon originated. Our livelihoods and our families depend on their survival which is why we’re constantly pushing for habitat protection and science-based fishery management. With climate change already wreaking havoc on our marine ecosystems, more than ever we must work together rather than point the finger at competing user groups,” said Linda Behnken, commercial fisherman and Executive Director of Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association.

“This misguided lawsuit is a dangerous distraction of scapegoating at its worst, unfairly transferring even more of the conservation burden and cost onto Alaska’s fishing families instead of addressing the complex and politically-fraught issues that are driving the decline of salmon in the Pacific Northwest,” said SalmonState Executive Director, Tim Bristol. “If the Wild Fish Conservancy is genuinely concerned about the future of Washington’s Chinook salmon and southern resident orca population, then their attention and resources would be better spent on efforts closer to home.” 

“For more than two decades, Southeast Alaska’s commercial fishermen have been cutting their harvests to protect Chinook stocks originating in the Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately, cutting Southeast Alaska’s Chinook harvest hasn’t brought those stocks back - the answer isn’t that simple. We need Alaska’s leaders to step in and protect what’s left of Southeast Alaska’s local fisheries and fishing communities. Otherwise we too will disappear with Washington’s Chinook and southern resident orcas,” said Daugherty. 

On August 8th, the Honorable Richard A. Jones, U.S. District Judge issued a summary judgement in favor of Wild Fish Conservancy’s lawsuit challenging the federal agency NOAA Fisheries for authorizing Southeast Alaska’s commercial troll harvest at levels NOAA acknowledges are pushing Southern Resident killer whales and wild Chinook closer to extinction. Despite this acknowledgment, NOAA authorized the fishery to continue citing speculative mitigation the agency claimed would offset this ongoing harm.

Quoting a news release from the Wild Fish Conservancy Northwest, this landmark Court decision overwhelmingly agreed NOAA violated the law by improperly relying on uncertain future mitigation measures in the form of hatchery production that lack specificity, are not enforceable, and ultimately are not reasonably certain to occur. In short, NOAA was unable to justify legally and scientifically that the mitigation would actually work, while we know with certainty that the fishery is contributing to the decline of the Southern Resident orcas and wild Chinook they depend on.

Wild Fish Conservancy noted that specifically, the Court found NOAA violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by relying on the supposed benefits to the whales from increasing hatchery production, without fully evaluating the harm those same hatchery increases will cause to wild Chinook. NOAA recognizes hatcheries and associated impacts as one of the top four factors contributing to the decline of wild salmon, along with overharvest, habitat loss, and hydroelectric dams. The Court also found NOAA violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in part by implementing the increased hatchery production without any NEPA procedures, which would include opportunities for public input and an evaluation of alternatives, such as reductions in harvest.

In a news release Wild Fish Conservancy wrote, this legal victory will not only directly benefit the recovery of Southern Resident killer whales and wild Chinook from British Columbia to Oregon, but it also shines a light on the urgent need to address the coast-wide failure of harvest management strategies, including the chronic, systemic failure of the Pacific Salmon Treaty to sustainably and equitably manage wild salmon. The Southeast Alaska Chinook troll fishery is just one fishery managed under this international agreement between the U.S. and Canada intended to “divide up the pie” of salmon stocks that occupy both US and British Columbia waters.

Wild Fish Conservancy said in their latest analysis of the fishery, NOAA admitted that the parties to the Treaty could not agree to reduce harvest to levels that would not contribute to the further decline of Southern Residents and wild Chinook. As a result, NOAA proposed the flawed mitigation at issue in our case they hoped could avoid an Endangered Species Act violation while allowing the fishery to continue.

It’s important to emphasize that Alaskan fishers who follow the rules are not to blame quoting the Wild Fish Conservancy news release. "The fault lies with government fisheries managers for consistently approving unsustainable harvest plans that have failed fishers, wild salmon, and orcas for decades. While it’s important to consider the potential impact of the Court’s decision on Alaskan fishers, it’s also important to recognize the chronic, decade-long cascading impacts of the Southeast Alaska troll fishery on other commercial, Tribal, and First Nation fisheries in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon whose fish are being harvested far from home regardless of their rivers of origin or ESA-listed status. These communities are forced to disproportionately shoulder the burden of wild salmon and orca recovery, which includes sacrificing their own cultural, social, and economic relationship with wild salmon."(Read the full news release.)

On the Web:

Download and read the August 8th summary judgement by Honorable Richard A. Jones, U.S. District Judge  in favor of Wild Fish Conservancy’s lawsuit 

Source of News:

Alaska Trollers Association
www.aktrollers.org

Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association
www.alfafish.org

SalmonState
www.salmonstate.org

Alaska Dept of Fish & Game
www.adfg.alaska.gov

Wild Fish Conservatory
wildfishconservancy.org

 

 

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