By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Alaska Trollers Association is asking for the city’s help in fighting a lawsuit that stands to affect the Southeast Alaska troll industry and other support industries.
An item is on the agenda of Tuesday’s regular Assembly meeting seeking $25,000 from the city to go toward the legal expenses of a lawsuit in which Sitka has a large stake in the outcome.
“This lawsuit could destroy the troll industry,” said Sitka troller Matt Donohoe, who is president of the state trollers association.
ATA is an intervenor on the side of the defendants in Wild Fish Conservancy v. Thom, filed in 2020. The lawsuit is aimed at protecting southern resident killer whales, which historically have spent part of the year in Puget Sound. “Thom” is Barry Thom, the National Marine Fisheries Service regional administrator. The state of Alaska has also intervened on the side of NMFS.
The troller F/V Joseph heads to town Thursday afternoon. (Sentinel Photo)
In 2020 the Sitka Assembly approved a donation of $5,000 from the city fish box tax for the legal case. The city of Craig donated $5,000, and Petersburg has given $2,500. The Southeast Alaska Guides Organization – a charter boat industry group – has made a $10,000 donation, and individual donations total $16,000, Donohoe said.
Specifically, the lawsuit seeks to invalidate the 2019 biological opinion that delegated management authority for king salmon from the federal government to the state of Alaska.
“WFC sought to halt the production of Chinook salmon by Columbia River hatcheries that were intended to increase prey availability to the southern resident killer whales,” said ATA attorney Douglas Steding of Northwest Resource Law, in a January 3 update. “WFC also sought to invalidate the incidental take statement that covered the Southeast Alaska troll fishery.”
Donohoe said Sitka will be greatly affected by the outcome of this case, and that it will be worth the city’s investment to contribute to the legal fees.
“Sitka gets the single largest block of the 200,000 king salmon that are delivered in Southeast,” he said. He estimates more than 460 trollers make king deliveries to Sitka, and that figure has been as high as 600. Hand and power troll permits total 1,500, and Donohoe added, Sitka is the “troll capital of southeast.”
“That’s a lot of boats, and the lawsuit is a threat to other fisheries,” Donohoe said. “It’s a lot of raw fish tax. It’s a lot of sales tax and fuel sales. And what are we going to do with the haulout with no trollers?”
He added that the lawsuit could affect charter boats and sport fishermen in later years.
Steding described the Wild Fish Conservancy as a Seattle-based anti-hatchery organization.
ATA became an intervener in 2021 to protect members’ interests in the Southeast troll fishery, and participated in a summary judgment briefing on the merits of WFC’s claims, Steding said.
The report and recommendation finding issued by the federal magistrate said in September 2021 that the analysis governing the “Columbia River prey increase program was flawed under federal law and that the Incidental Take Statement governing the troll fishery was therefore legally deficient.” Judge Richard Jones adopted the magistrate’s report in August 2022.
The ATA attorney said the report and recommendation would invalidate the Incidental Take Statement for the troll fishery in the winter and summer fisheries, and put the seasons in jeopardy.
“Without the ITS, the Endangered Species Act is violated and fishing is prohibited,” Steding said.
ATA has spent $96,000 in legal fees, but more work is ahead, including objections to Peterson’s decision, and the expense of coordinating with agencies to ensure the troll fishery is not closed. Another goal, the attorney said, is “working on getting the word out regarding WFC’s actions against the selective, sustainable troll fishery and developing broader public support for keeping that fishery open.”
Donohoe said plaintiffs have deep pockets and he has seen other lawsuits by similar environmental groups be successful in the past in advocating for the closure of crab fisheries in California, and the lobster fishery in Maine, which has since reopened through legislative action.
Steding estimates another $100,000 is needed for legal fees.
Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, working with ATA, refuted the claims in the lawsuit, pointing out the Alaska fishery is 1,000 miles away from the whales’ habitat.
The arguments raised by the two nonprofits point to the lack of evidence that the Alaska troll fisheries affect the killer whales of Puget Sound and that the more likely causes of declines in the numbers of killer whales are pollution, urbanization and vessel traffic in the Northwest.
“Vessel strikes are a common cause of injury or death (of killer whales),” ATA and ALFA say in their legal arguments. “Noise pollution from vessel traffic is chronic in key foraging areas and makes it difficult for orcas to find and capture prey. The number of commercial orca-observing vessels alone that concentrate around foraging orcas has more than quintupled since the 1980s and disrupts orca foraging success.”
They also point out that fishery managers have actually increased the amount of Chinook available to the southern resident orcas, through higher escapements of infrequently caught weaker stocks. The result has not been meaningful improvement in the orca population, “because of the failure to address other more significant impacts,” they say.
Their statement has 12 bullet points before the conclusion: “Population, pollution and other disturbances are harming orcas, not fisheries.”
It can be found under the Assembly meeting documents at cityofsitka.com under the Jan. 10 “meeting details” link. ATA has other links on its website including a 40-page white paper by ALFA and ATA.
Tuesday’s meeting starts at 6 p.m. at Harrigan Centennial Hall.
