Judge Awards Wild Fish Conservancy Legal Fees Reimbursement In Contentious Southeast Troll Fishery Dispute

A contentious despite between the Wild Fish Conservancy and the Southeast Alaska king salmon troll fishery the former had tried to legally shut down in Alaska waters before the fishing season was allowed to commence. The lengthy legal battle’s latest turn is the U.S. District Court’s ruling to pay more than half a million dollars in legal fees to the Wild Fish Conservancy.

Here’s more from the Wrangell Sentinel and the Sitka Daily Sentinel:

This past November a U.S. District Court judge ordered the federal government to pay $1.6 million in attorney fees to WFC to cover its costs in its years-long lawsuit, pursuant to the Endangered Species Act and the Equal Access to Justice Act.

“It’s egregious to see WFC reimbursed for its costs,” said Tyler Emerson, treasurer of the Alaska Trollers Association, which intervened as a defendant in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit “caused an incredible amount of anxiety up and down the coastline,” Sitka fisherman Jeff Farvour said. “There’s financial impacts, and emotional or mental impacts, to Southeast fishermen and communities.”