By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
A judge has scheduled a one-week trial starting July 27, 2020, for the lawsuit filed by the Sitka Tribe of Alaska challenging the state management of the Sitka Sound commercial sac roe herring fishery and the related herring subsistence fishery.
At a brief hearing in the Sitka courthouse this morning to set a trial date, Juneau Superior Court Judge Daniel Schally set oral arguments for January 28 in Juneau. The trial will take place in Sitka.
The original complaint filed in 2018 asked for a preliminary injunction requiring F&G to develop a fishery management plan consistent with subsistence regulations and subsistence laws.
The state in its response has said it is following regulations and the law in its management of the fishery.
On Oct. 27 Schally vacated the previous trial date, of Jan. 27, 2020, and set Nov. 18 for a trial date setting conference. A new briefing schedule was set related to the question of whether the Department of Fish and Game’s interpretation and implementation of a particular regulation is lawful.
That regulation (5 AAC 27.195) was approved by the Board of Fisheries in 2002.
It says that F&G in its management of the commercial sac roe fishery must distribute the commercial harvest by fishing time and area in a way that provides subsistence users with a “reasonable opportunity.” It also says the department must consider the “quality and quantity of herring spawn on branches, kelp and seaweed.”
“We just want to know what the regulation requires,” said John Starkey, an attorney for Sitka Tribe of Alaska, in an interview this morning.
The judge presided in Juneau and most attorneys attended this morning’s hearing by phone, including ADF&G attorneys, Jeffrey Pickett and Aaron Peterson; and STA attorneys Starkey, Jennifer Coughland and Andrew Erickson. Michael Stanley, the Southeast Herring Conservation Alliance attorney, was in the Juneau courthouse. Starkey, Coughland and Erickson are with the law firm Landye Bennett Blumstein LLP of Anchorage.
