By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Wild Fish Conservancy says Alaska’s congressional delegation failed to raise new information in its friend of the court filing on the killer whale lawsuit, and is urging the federal judge to “grant the (WFC) its requested relief” as quickly as possible.
That “requested relief” would in essence shut down the summer and winter Chinook troll fisheries in Southeast Alaska.
WFC filed a lawsuit in federal court in 2019 aimed at protecting southern resident killer whales which spend part of the year in Puget Sound. The lawsuit seeks to invalidate the biological opinion under which the federal government delegates to Alaska the management of king salmon that originate in the northwestern U.S. but migrate annually to Southeast Alaska.
The relief recommended by the federal magistrate judge on Dec. 13, 2022, is to require federal fisheries biologists and managers to redo the biological opinion’s incidental take statement, which the WFC claims unduly restricts the number of king salmon allowed to return to their native waters as prey for the endangered Southern Resident killer whales that spend part of the year in Puget Sound.
The Alaska Trollers Association and state of Alaska are intervenors on behalf of the National Marine Fisheries Service, the defendant in the lawsuit.
The WFC statement filed last week is in response to the friend of the court brief by Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Rep. Mary Peltola supporting the present policy and citing its importance to the economy of Southeast Alaska.
In their brief the Alaska officials asked the court to “remand without vacating or enjoining the prey increase program or vacating the incidental take statement for the Southeast Alaska salmon troll fishery.”
The response filed by WFC on March 13 says the court needs to settle the matter quickly because the Alaska summer commercial troll fishery season “commences on July 1 and preparations begin well-beforehand.”
WFC also said the court should not allow the delegation’s friend of the court brief to cause delay in granting relief to the plaintiffs as it relates to the Incidental Take Statement (ITS) on the Chinook salmon fisheries.
ATA board president Matt Donohoe said he was frustrated and angry by the WFC response. He said the group is using the congressional delegation’s amicus brief as “an opportunity to take another bite of the legal apple.”
He pointed to the WFC argument that NMFS made the suit possible by not following the National Environment Policy Act requirements. He said WFC also makes a “not so veiled threat” to the congressional delegation, arguing that the “presumptive remedy” would be to vacate the entire 2019 biological opinion and the ITS, which would close all Southeast salmon fisheries, not just the troll fishery.
Donohoe pointed to Page 7 of the WFC response:
“The proposed partial vacatur, however, has no effect on the vast majority of fisheries authorized by the ITS. While some economic impact will occur, it is substantially mitigated by the proposed partial vacatur.”
The trollers association also pointed to WFC’s suggestion to the delegation that they could help fishermen by providing financial relief: “Amici, as members of Congress, are uniquely suited to reduce economic impacts; Congress is responsible for appropriating funds to assist with fishery failures, including those resulting from ‘judicial action.’”
Donohoe called this argument disingenuous, since WFC is the reason the fishery would be shut down, and if it is, getting relief through Congress is not guaranteed or easy.
