Ninth Circuit Court Reverses Course To Allow Southeast Alaska Chinook Troll Fishing Season Amid Legal Challenges

The saga of the Washington-based Wild Fish Conservancy’s lawsuit in an attempt to list Southeast Alaska Chinook salmon as threatened – not to mention trying to shut down the commercial hook and troll fishery in Alaska waters – took a new twist today in U.S. District Court. Today in San Francisco, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ three judges ruled that essentially the Southeast Alaska troll fishery could remain open amid the Wild Fish Conservancy’s long-standing argument that the harvesting of Chinook would affect southern orca whales and the wild fish of Puget Sound and West Coast waters.

From a Reuters’ story on the ruling:

U.S. District Judge Richard Jones at the urging of the Wild Fish Conservancy had in May 2023 vacated part of a so-called incidental take statement the fisheries service issued in 2019 that authorized the commercial Chinook salmon troll fishery in southeast Alaska.

He did so after finding it violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to adequately provide a plan to mitigate impacts from commercial fishing on threatened wild Chinook salmon and endangered southern resident orca that depend on them for food off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and Canada.

But the 9th Circuit panel on Friday said Jones went too far by taking the disruptive step of vacating the take statement instead of remanding the agency’s decision for it to consider further but leaving it intact.

In their ruling, judges Mark Bennett, Anthony Johnstone and Milan Smith stated that Jones “disregarded the likelihood that the take statement would be supported by better reasoning, and readopted, on remand. As the court recognized elsewhere, the prey increase program—previously “uncertain and indefinite”—had been running for more than three years and had generated “a certain and definite increase in prey” by the time the court issued its remedies decision. Thus, the district court erred by ignoring that the agency’s errors, although serious, were unlikely to affect the substance of the decision adopted on remand.”

Our sister magazine, Northwest Sportsman, has some key points on today’s ruling here.

Here’s also some reaction from SalmonState:

Statement from SalmonState Executive Director Tim Bristol in reaction to today’s Ninth Circuit Court Ruling on: WILD FISH CONSERVANCY, Plaintiff-Appellee,  v.  JENNIFER QUAN, in her official capacity as Regional Administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service; et al., 

August 16, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“This ruling from the US Ninth Circuit shows the Wild Fish Conservancy’s attempt to shut down all Chinook fishing by Alaska hook and line trollers was the wrong diagnosis and the wrong prescription for the endangered Southern Resident Orca’s future survival.”

“The Court rightly found the federal government is already working to update the science around the Southeast Alaska troll fishery, which we already know has little impact on SRKW. The judges also found that the lower court also failed to adequately consider the serious economic and social impacts the WFC’s call for a shutdown of Chinook trolling would have on Southeast Alaskans.”

“The Endangered Species Act is a powerful and important tool but it needs to be wielded properly and responsibly. Thankfully, the Ninth Circuit just reminded the Wild Fish Conservancy of that fact.”

SalmonState works to keep Alaska a place where wild salmon and the people whose lives are interconnected with them continue to thrive.

And the Alaska Longline’s Fishermen’s Association had this to say:

Fishermen applaud court’s decision to uphold science and shut down Wild Fish Conservancy’s misguided lawsuit 

Sitka, AK – Fishermen and residents in Southeast Alaska applauded the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court’s ruling today regarding the case WILD FISH CONSERVANCY, Plaintiff-Appellee,  v.  JENNIFER QUAN, in her official capacity as Regional Administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service; et al.. The Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC), a Washington-based organization, sued the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in March 2020 based on a technicality in NMFS’s 2019 Biological Opinion for Southeast Alaska’s salmon fisheries, putting in jeopardy the future of Southeast Alaska’s fishing families and communities. 

“I and thousands of other small-boat fishermen in Alaska are relieved by today’s court ruling. It not only means that we can continue to fish and support our communities, but it also shows that the Wild Fish Conservancy’s efforts to scapegoat and shut down Southeast Alaska’s troll fishery are misguided and not an effective way to restore endangered Chinook salmon and Southern Resident Killer Whales,” said Jeff Farvour, Sitka-based commercial fisherman and Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association Board Member. 

“Alaska’s fishermen are grateful that the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court was able to see through the Wild Fish Conservancy’s misinformation and flawed rationale and was able to approach this incredibly complex issue through a more holistic and factual lens,” said Linda Behnken, Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association Executive Director. “We are also deeply grateful to NMFS, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and the Alaska Trollers Association for all of the time and hard work that they have put into protecting and upholding the data that clearly shows that Southeast Alaska’s sustainable hook-and line troll fishery is not causing harm to Chinook or the Southern Resident Killer Whale population.” 

“Now that this lawsuit is finally behind us, we can get back to working on the real threats facing the Pacific Northwest’s endangered Chinook salmon populations and Southern Resident Killer Whales,” said Behnken.