FIFTH OPENING – The Sitka seine boats Hukilau and Rose Lee pump herring aboard this afternoon at the end of Deep Inlet during the fifth opening in the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery. The opening was being held in two locations beginning at 11 a.m. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson) 

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Daily Sitka Sentinel

Long Wait Ahead On SE Trolling Issue

By GARLAND KENNEDY

Sentinel Staff Writer

A summary judgment in an ongoing environmental lawsuit has cast a shadow over the Southeast Alaska king salmon troll fishery, with the precise implications of the ruling remaining unclear for the time being.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Richard Jones ruled in favor of plaintiffs alleging that the National Marine Fisheries Service violated the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act in administering the Chinook fishery.

The Wild Fish Conservancy contends federal mismanagement of king salmon in coastal waters between Washington and Alaska deprives the Southern Resident Killer Whales in Puget Sound of the prey those orcas need for survival.

The F/V Cinnabar and dozens of trollers fish in Sitka Sound today. A lawsuit has cast a shadow on the king salmon troll fishery. (Sentinel Photo)

Along with NMFS, the state of Alaska and the Alaska Trollers Association are co-defendants in the suit.

The Wild Fish Conservancy’s suit targets the NMFS 2019 Biological Opinion, part of an evaluation of the Chinook fishery in Southeast Alaska.

“With respect to the Southern Resident Killer Whale, the 2019 SEAK BiOp did not disguise the issue,” the lawsuit states. “It explicitly acknowledged that the Southern Resident Killer Whale has a high risk of extinction due largely to low fecundity rates. It attributed this reduced fecundity to reduced prey abundance; primarily, Chinook salmon. It plainly stated, ‘Under the existing management and recovery regimes over the last decade, salmon availability has not been sufficient to support Southern Resident population growth.’ It acknowledged that a recent population viability assessment indicated that effects of prey abundance have the largest impact on the population growth rate.”

The plaintiffs acknowledge the killer whales are threatened by other factors: toxic contaminants in their environment, vessel noise, and other disturbances, WFC said in the complaint.

As a result of Jones’ August 8 judgment, the NMFS biological opinion will have to be redone. In the meantime, Alaska Trollers Association president Matt Donohoe told the Sentinel, the Southeast troll fishery will be in a state of legal limbo.

“We don’t know yet,” Donohoe said. “NOAA has yet to respond with a new (biological opinion). It’s amazing to me that the folks in Puget Sound, like WFC, who claim to be so concerned about the survival of (the Puget Sound orcas) resist doing anything practical about their plight. Outlawing commercial whale watching comes to mind… or cleaning up the ‘forever’ chemicals that are poisoning these whales.”

Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association executive director Linda Behnken said that rather than fighting, the WFC and Southeast trollers could be allies in a broader movement for healthy oceans.

“I’d like just to express some frustration that this group bringing this lawsuit is undermining a clear ally in the troll fishery that works hard, relentlessly - always has - to take care of wild fish and the ocean that they depend on, and how counterproductive it is to single out this one piece, this one segment to go after. Putting them out of business when they’re an ally in the bigger issue of ocean health,” Behnken said.

Even if Chinook trolling in Southeast ended, Donohoe doesn’t think that would save the threatened orcas.

“Insead, WFC and their whale watching supporters chose to attack a 100-year-old fishery which, if eliminated, wouldn’t improve those poor, magnificent creatures’ lot at all,” he said.

Another Sitka troller, Jeff Farvour, said that if NMFS does a BiOp reaching the same conclusion as the first, the question is whether it will withstand a legal challenge.

“Because they (the WFC) are going to challenge it,” he said. “You know, next is going to be the BiOp. That was the best alternative that was out there. And now we’re here and just waiting on that. And then there’s all these outstanding questions like who does it really affect? Does it affect anybody that catches treaty Chinook?... We’re just not sure who’s really outside of trollers who’s really affected.”

King salmon fishing is regulated by the Pacific Salmon Treaty, which allocates fish between U.S. and Canadian fisheries.

If the Southeast troll fishery is curtailed, said longtime troller Tad Fujioka, Canadian boats might make up the difference by hooking more fish.

“Under the terms of the Pacific Salmon Treaty, the Canadian fishermen are allowed to harvest any surplus king salmon that are coming to there,” he said. “If Alaska, say, doesn’t harvest our historic share of fish and there’s more fish than anticipated showing up in (British Columbia), then the Canadian fishermen are allowed to fish harder to catch those extra fish. And those fisheries actually do catch Puget Sound fish and much higher proportion than we do.”

Fujioka is the chairman of the Seafood Producers’ Co-Op board and serves on the Sitka Fish and Game Advisory Committee.

In the lawsuit, the Wild Fish Conservancy asked the judge to declare that the U.S. fisheries agencies named as defendants “are in violation… of the (Endangered Species Act) by adopting and implementing the 2019 SEAK BiOp and its incidental take statement and by continuing to authorize and manage salmon fisheries in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Alaska without ensuring that such fisheries will not jeopardize the continued existence of the endangered Southern Resident Killer Whale.”

Along with ordering NMFS to redo the 2019 BiOp, WFC asked the judge to “enjoin NMFS from authorizing take associated with salmon fisheries in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Alaska until NMFS complies with the ESA and NEPA.”

The injunction has yet to be decided upon, but if enacted would shut down the Chinook troll fishery until the BiOp is redone in compliance with federal law.

When the opinion is reissued, Behnken hopes that it points to a variety of factors in the decline of Puget Sound orcas.

“The Biological Opinion needs to clarify that the impact of the Southeast troll (fishery) is not a threat to the orcas in Puget Sound. And to put into context, what all orcas are up against? What’s going on with pollution, climate change other orcas, whale watching tours, the sport fishery that’s taking juvenile Chinook right there in Puget Sound,” she said.

Conservancy co-founder and director of special projects Kurt Beardslee told the Sentinel he doesn’t expect there to be an immediate impact on the fishery until the court decides on a remedy.

There “won’t be an immediate impact because now, this case moves on to remedy and what will actually happen on the ground will be determined by the remedy portion of this case. And I can’t really speculate,” Beardslee said Wednesday from the Conservancy’s Duvall, Washington, office.

The southern resident orca population has fallen from 98 in 1995 to 72 today, the lawsuit says. While the suit singles out the role of king salmon harvest, Beardslee noted that a variety of factors are in play.

“There really are many, many factors that are causing the decline. The stressor of not having enough food, exacerbates all those other stressors. And also the issue of having smaller Chinook than they did historically,” Beardslee said. “A really large part of the problem is fishing in the nursery off of Southeast Alaska, where many Chinook up the coast, go to rear for years and grow to be adults and then, hopefully return, migrate back down the coast to spawn in their natal rivers.

“But when they’re harvested in the nursery, over time, what that does is that they have had a propensity to be older… The likelihood that would happen is really slim when we fish like (the troll fleet does). And so over the years, maybe the last 130 years or so, effectively the Chinook have actually become smaller, less successful spawning and that is absolutely contributing to the decline of killer whales,” he said.

The final findings of Washington’s 2019 Southern Resident Orca Task Force emphasized the need to increase Chinook habitat restoration efforts, “significantly increase hatchery production and programs to benefit Southern Resident orcas consistent with sustainable fisheries,” manage invasive species and “establish a limited-entry whale-watching permit system for commercial whale-watching vessels and commercial kayak groups in the inland waters of Washington state to increase acoustic and physical refuge opportunities for the orcas.”

The task force also cited the role of toxic chemicals in the decline.

The state should “identify, prioritize and take action on chemicals that impact orcas and their prey. Reduce stormwater threats and accelerate clean-up of toxics harmful to orcas,” the task force recommended.

In the list of 49 suggestions, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s task force didn’t mention the harvest of king salmon.

Beardslee said that “actually was not addressed in the governor’s task force because they were discouraged from talking about harvest, which is disappointing.”

The Environmental Protection Agency highlights a decline in prey availability, as well as a rise in toxic chemicals and vessel noise in its webpage discussing Puget Sound orcas.

Toxins, the EPA says, are particularly dangerous to orcas when they’re short on food and burning fat to survive.

“When trapped in blubber, contaminants have little impact on the killer whale’s health. However, when killer whales are food-deprived, they rely on their blubber to survive,” the EPA website states. “When this fat is used, harmful pollutants accumulated in the blubber over time are released into the whales. These pollutants, in addition to malnutrition, may cause pregnancy failure in Southern Resident Killer Whales and may affect the killer whale’s immune system function.”

For the time being, the troll fleet in Southeast remains active in pursuit of king salmon as the court decides on the proper remedy in the lawsuit.

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20 YEARS AGO

March 2004

Matthew C. Hunter of Sitka recently returned from Cuba as part of a St. Olaf College International and Off-Campus Studies program. Hunter, a junior physics major at St. Olaf College, is the son of Robert and Kim Hunter of Sitka.


50 YEARS AGO

March 1974

Eighth graders have returned from a visit to Juneau to see the Legislature. They had worked for it since Christmas vacation ... Clarice Johnson’s idea of a “White Elephant” sales was chosen as the best money-maker; Joe Roth won the political cartoon assignment; highest government test scorers were Ken Armstrong, Joanna Hearn, Linda Montgomery, Lisa Henry, Calvin Taylor and David Licari .....

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