ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – In order to protect the critically endangered orca whales that consume the fish, a lower court decision that would have banned the summer chinook salmon troll fishery in southeast Alaska was overruled on Wednesday by a U.S. appeals court.
Thanks to the judgement of a three-judge 9th Circuit Court panel, the summer chinook, or king, salmon season will start as planned the next week, supporting a sector that employs around 1,500 fishery employees in southeast Alaska.
According to the judgement, the state and other appeal parties proved that there was a sufficiently high chance that the specific and significant consequences of the lower court’s decision “outweigh the speculative environmental threats.” As the appeals court further investigates the case, the decision will permit the fishery to continue.
After U.S. District Judge Richard Jones in Seattle ruled in favour of Wild Fish Conservancy last month, the National Marine Fisheries Services has been forced to revise a biological opinion that is required for the fishing to occur. The winter chinook season may have also been impacted by Jones’ decision.
Since most of the salmon taken in southeast Alaska spawn in rivers to the south, the conservation group said it would help feed starving whales and ailing king salmon populations along the West Coast.
The Wild Fish Conservancy expressed its “disheartened” by the decision in a statement on Wednesday. It issued a dire warning about the consequences of losing Southern Resident killer whales, a group of orcas that spends the summer and autumn in Washington State’s Puget Sound, as well as West Coast Chinook salmon.
“It is unfortunate that the Ninth Circuit determined that the short-term economic interests of a select few should be prioritised over the continued existence of these species and the current and future generations of First Nations, Tribal Nations, and communities throughout the Pacific Northwest,” the organisation said.
The troll fishermen in his cooperative would have likely faced a 50% pay cut if not for the appeals court’s ruling, leaving them with little given their margins are often so slim, according to Tad Fujioka, head of the Seafood Producers Cooperative.
For me, all the trollers, and all the Southeasters who depend on the troll fishery, Fujioka added, “It’s a big, big relief.” “One of the few things you can do that offers year-round employment in small villages is trolling.”
Hooks and lines are towed behind a boat during trolling, which is a type of hook-and-line fishing.
According to a brief submitted to the appeals court on Friday by 16 tribes and two other Native organisations, around a third of southeast Alaska’s trollers are members of Native tribes who rely on their traditional knowledge to sustain their families and communities.
For me, all the trollers, and all the Southeasters who depend on the troll fishery, Fujioka added, “It’s a big, big relief.” “One of the few things you can do that offers year-round employment in small villages is trolling.”
Hooks and lines are towed behind a boat during trolling, which is a type of hook-and-line fishing.
According to a brief submitted to the appeals court on Friday by 16 tribes and two other Native organisations, around a third of southeast Alaska’s trollers are members of Native tribes who rely on their traditional knowledge to sustain their families and communities.
The court’s recognition of the irreparable harm this bogus litigation will cause to honest, hardworking fishermen who have committed no wrongdoing is wonderful, the fisherman stated. The belief that pollutants, pollution, noise, and vessel traffic in their immediate vicinity have a greater impact on the sustainability of Puget Sound orca whales than a small boat, hook and line troll salmon fishery hundreds of kilometres distant from Puget Sound is demonstrably absurd.
The most recent ten-year plan for the commercial chinook troll fishery in southeast Alaska was approved by NOAA Fisheries in 2019, with harvest caps decided upon through agreements between the United States and Canada.
King salmon are the biggest and most expensive type of Pacific salmon, and restaurants and supermarkets all around the world get them from the southeastern fishery.
In the Salish Sea areas between Washington state and Canada, they also make up the majority of the food of endangered orcas. The local orca population has suffered as a result of the Northwest’s chinook runs being only a small portion of its historical abundance due to overfishing, dams, development, and pollution. There are just 73 whales left, inbreeding is a major issue, and scientists are issuing extinction alerts.
The state of Alaska claimed in court documents that the fishery has little impact on the whale population and that salmon must travel 700 miles (1,100 kilometres) in order to avoid other predators, including a separate population of killer whales, Steller sea lions, commercial and recreational fisheries in Canada, and tribal fisheries.
Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy issued a statement saying, “The 9th Circuit got it right when it concluded that Alaska’s fishing interests outweighed the “speculative environmental dangers.”
The Alaska Trollers Association and the federal fisheries department joined the state of Alaska in the appeal.
On Wednesday, the federal fisheries department stated that it would not comment on the decision. The conservation organisation was given a note requesting feedback.
