The scales of justice: Salmon fisheries in federal court, fighting to keep their lines in the water

Hosted by Evan Kleiman Aug. 18, 2023 FOOD & DRINK

See here for link to listen to news story

More than 90% of wild salmon are caught in Alaskan waters, where the fish travel from the coasts of California, the Pacific Northwest, and British Columbia. As the total number of fish have declined, limits of a catch have naturally decreased. The Wild Fish Conservancy, based in Washington, sued over technicalities in the Endangered Species Act. The salmon have been deeply compromised by dams and pollution, says third-generation Alaskan and journalist Julia O’Malley. Because the fish swimming up from the Lower 48 may be potentially endangered, Alaskan fisheries must come up with a mitigation plan. A judge was compelled by the Conservancy’s complaint of how to enact such a plan. Alaskan fisheries recently won a last minute reprieve in a lawsuit that would have kept lines out of the water this fishing season. 

OPINION: Data-driven fisheries management for future generations

Anchorage Daily News

By Doug Vincent-Lang

Published: July 24, 2023

“As commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, I am proud to work every day with people who make Alaska’s fisheries a global model of sustainability and fisheries management. It takes all of us — from the deckhands on commercial fishing boats, to my staff here at the department, to Alaska families reporting their subsistence numbers — to uphold the data-driven, science-based management practices that set Alaska’s fisheries apart.”

We prioritize scientific research and data collection, ensuring that the department has the information necessary to make smart management decisions. To this end, Fish and Game deliberately invests in regular surveys, various assessments, and monitoring of fish stocks, allowing the department to set fishing quotas that balance the long-term health of fish populations with economic and cultural priorities benefiting all Alaskans.

Recently we have been witnessing unprecedented change in our oceans. Managers, fishermen, and scientists alike have many questions about the future. Fish and Game’s focus on science-based fisheries management works to ensure the long-term survival of our fish stocks and realization of community and economic benefits thanks to healthy and robust fish populations in most of the state. This involves the enforcement of limited entry and fishing quotas to prevent overfishing while incentivizing conservation and stewardship among fishermen. Additionally, this sometimes means reduction of bag limits and other appropriate seasonal and area limits to fisheries are needed to protect spawning or otherwise vulnerable stocks. In short, sustainability is enshrined in our state constitution.

For generations, consumers the world over have known that buying Alaska seafood means supporting healthy marine ecosystems and fisheries that support thriving coastal communities. However, other international fisheries management systems do not always share the State of Alaska’s commitment to sustainability. To protect the integrity of the claim of sustainability across the global industry, it is up to organizations such as the Marine Stewardship Council, or MSC, an organization that evaluates and sets standards for sustainable fishing around the world, to act with integrity and uphold its own standard, even when doing so means missing out on profits.

Unfortunately, the MSC has failed at this duty in recent years, as it has observed Russian actions in Ukraine, assessed the implications for its Russian client fisheries, and chosen a path of accommodation and appeasement. It is why I wrote them a letter detailing our concerns with their continued certification of Russian fisheries. In the letter, I pointed out that the MSC has preserved its own revenue stream from Russian fisheries while providing indirect support for the Putin regime and his brutal war of aggression all the while applying strict standards to Alaska’s fisheries with the hope that they will eventually establish equity. This creates an unlevel playing field, and more importantly, gravely misleads consumers and markets who believe that the seafood they are buying is certified to the highest environmental and ethical standards. In essence, their certification of Russian seafood denigrates the certification they give to Alaska fisheries. Nonetheless, the State of Alaska remains committed to the highest levels of sustainability and will continue to value science and process when making management decisions.

The actions of the MSC continue to prove why Alaska’s homegrown, third-party Responsible Fisheries Management, or RFM, certification program is a better value for the seafood industry. Unlike MSC, RFM prioritizes sustainable fisheries management over corporate profits by applying consistent certification standards to all fisheries. Not a single Russian fishery is RFM certified, and it should remain that way as long as those fisheries are tied to the Putin regime.

Here in Alaska, our commitment to management and sustainable practices isn’t driven solely by market benefits or cold profits. Our motivation stems from respect for the resource, respect for harvesters and consumers, and respect for all Alaskan communities depending on the longevity and health of fish stocks today and well into the future.

Doug Vincent-Lang is the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Making the Case for Fishermen in the Farm Bill

Emily Coffin from the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association Blog

August 14th, 2023

Last week, Congresswoman Pingree, along with her colleagues on the House Agriculture Committee, including Chairman GT Thompson of Pennsylvania, hosted Maine farmers and interested parties at Freeport High School to receive input on the 2023 Farm Bill. The bill is passed once every 5 years and determines how the federal government prioritizes domestic food policy. Although it was originally introduced in 1933 for the benefit of the agricultural industry, the bill has developed into a comprehensive amalgamation of bills that support all sectors of the food economy. The bill is extensive, from nutrition to broadband access. It includes 12 subsections and has great influence on how the country buys, produces, and manages national food production. Within the bill there are USDA provisions that provide grants to young farmers as marketing programs that could open and extend access and opportunity to fishermen, seafood processors, and other participants in the industry. It is a wonderful legislative opportunity to expose the fishing industry to the numerous federal benefits that farmers and food producers enjoy.

Sitka’s seafood donation network connects abundance with scarcity in Western Alaska

Posted by Robert Woolsey, KCAW | Jul 25, 2023

A seafood donation program that began in Sitka during the pandemic is still growing. Now called the Seafood Distribution Network, the program is supplying sockeye to families on the Yukon and Chignik rivers, whose traditional salmon runs have crashed. 

The market shift in seafood during the COVID pandemic created a problem for the industry: Unlike many other sectors, the supply – the fish – was still there. How to connect those fish with people when traditional markets vanished? 

For Linda Behnken, director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, it was about connecting the dots.

“So we worked with the local processors here to figure out what fish was stranded by markets being closed, by restaurants being closed, the supply chain disruptions,” Behnken said. “We raised money, bought fish from fishermen that was stranded product, and then started distributing it to people in town that told us they were in need. So it was really ‘You let us know if you need seafood, we’ll provide it.’”

And that’s how ALFA’s Seafood Donation Program got started in 2020. Basically, a processor-to-doorstep delivery service for people who were having trouble getting by. It didn’t take long for word about the program to get out.

“And then we started hearing from people outside Sitka that there was a need and people really wanted seafood,” Behnken continued. “So we did a distribution with Sealaska, for example, that reached every community in Southeast Alaska. And we did distributions in the Lower 48 to Tribes along the Columbia River, to Anchorage military families, to communities in Western Alaska. Where we heard there was need, we found partners to work with to make that happen.”

Behnken credits Sitka-based processors Seafood Producers’ Coop, Sitka Sound Seafoods, and Northline Seafoods, along with Tribes and tribal organizations across the state for helping make the connections that kept the program going.

On paper, it sounds like an impossible undertaking – delivering 645,000 seafood meals across the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, but Behnken says it conformed to basic Alaskan values.

“Alaska is a big state, but we’re also a small state and communities really care about other communities,” she said. “And we have a lot of relatives in different parts of the state, and that there is clear reason for us to share between those areas that have a lot and those areas of scarcity, but the infrastructure isn’t really there. So that’s what we’re working on developing is that infrastructure in Alaska so Alaskans can benefit from Alaska’s fish,

A grant from the Alaska Community Foundation got the Seafood Donation Program rolling; a regional food systems grant from the US Department of Agriculture helped ramp it up. But just the energy of regular Alaskans is helping fuel things now. In a pilot project in Dillingham this June, ALFA organized a drive to collect subsistence sockeye for communities affected by the crash in chinook and chum stocks.

Natalie Sattler is the program manager for ALFA.

“We worked with a lot of community members and locals in Dillingham and the Bristol Bay area to help us collect seafood and it was all subsistence donations,” Sattler said. “And within one week, we were able to collect 5,000 pounds of sockeye and folks rallied support, they went down to their setnet sites – kids, families, everyone just you picking fish and donating it and getting it ready to ship out.”

This year, the sockeye will be going to communities on the Yukon and Chignik rivers. And besides providing food, Behnken says the fish are intended to keep food traditions alive.

“What we’ve heard from people in these communities that aren’t able to harvest fish themselves right now because of scarcity is that they really wanted round fish because being able to process that fish as a family – and as a community – is really culturally important,” Behnken said.
The pandemic and the salmon crash have been a one-two punch for many communities in Western Alaska. In a news release, Rep. Mary Peltola said programs like ALFA’s Seafood Distribution Network were a critical part of the rebound. “Low salmon abundance is an issue that needs to be addressed at every level, from the federal government down to individual communities, and efforts like this are an important piece of that larger goal,” Peltola said.

Bristol Bay community members collect over 5,000 pounds of donated salmon for Yukon and Chignik communities

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

July 18, 2023

Dillingham, AK - In June, Dillingham-area residents harvested and collected over 5,000

pounds of subsistence-caught sockeye salmon that will be distributed to families in the

Yukon and Chignik unable to harvest their own local salmon due to low salmon returns.

The salmon donation was coordinated through the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s

Association’s (ALFA) Seafood Distribution Network with the help of local partners,

including Northline Seafoods, Bristol Bay Native Association, Grant Aviation, and Bristol

Bay Native Corporation.

In June before Bristol Bay’s commercial fishery opened, local Dillingham residents

helped ALFA collect subsistence salmon from families who were fishing at Dillingham’s

Kanakanak Beach. Northline Seafoods - a new seafood processor in Bristol Bay that

specializes in processing and freezing whole fish - helped oversee the cleaning and

freezing of the salmon. The salmon was frozen whole in response to requests from

Yukon and Chignik communities for whole fish so that they could fully utilize the salmon

and practice their food traditions. In addition, each salmon was labeled with the name of

the family that donated it -

In the coming weeks, Grant Aviation will help fly the salmon to Yukon and Chignik

villages, including Alakanuk, Pitkas Point, Saint Mary’s, Chignik Lagoon, and Chignik

Bay. The fish will also be used by the Yukon River Drainage Fishermen’s Association

Educational Exchange program where several youth will travel to communities on the

Yukon and share their experiences around salmon.

“This salmon donation project was a bit of an experiment for us; we didn’t know how

many people would be willing to contribute a portion of their subsistence harvest for

families that they didn’t know. When people heard that we were collecting salmon for the

Yukon and Chigniks, they jumped at the chance to contribute and help other Alaskans -

especially those who depend on subsistence for their diet and culture. We were thrilled

by the positive responses and were able to collect our target of 5,000 pounds of salmon

much quicker than anticipated,” said Natalie Sattler, Program Director for the Alaska

Longline Fishermen’s Association. “We couldn’t have done it without the generous

support of our partners, especially Bristol Bay Native Association, Grant Aviation, and

Northline Seafoods.”

“Our company was first approached in 2020 to help address the growing shortage of

salmon in Alaska’s rural communities and have been involved in the Seafood

Distribution Network ever since. Making sure local Alaskans have access to high quality

seafood is incredibly important to us and we are committed to supporting the Network’s

ongoing efforts to build the infrastructure and distribution systems needed to improve the

resiliency and sustainability of Alaska’s local food system,” said Ben Blakey, CEO of

Northline Seafoods.

“At a time when so many communities are struggling with low salmon returns and facing

another summer of empty smokehouses and freezers, I am filled with hope to see local,

grassroots efforts like this salmon donation project in Dillingham. This project not only

embodies what subsistence is all about, but it is also an example of Alaskans at their

best: sharing and taking care of each other during times of need. Low salmon

abundance is an issue that needs to be addressed at every level, from the federal

government down to individual communities, and efforts like this are an important piece

of that larger goal, ” said Alaska U.S. Congresswoman Mary Peltola.

The Seafood Distribution Network emerged through ALFA’s Seafood Donation Program,

which was started in March 2020 in response to COVID-19 and its impacts on local

fisheries and families. Since then, ALFA’s Seafood Donation Program has provided

more than 645,000 donated Alaska seafood meals to families experiencing food

insecurity in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. With funding from the USDA, ALFA is

currently undergoing a Regional Food System Partnership planning process in which it

will develop a more long-term plan for the Seafood Distribution Network and future

seafood donation efforts.

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We Are Going Fishing!

Posted by Linda Behnken Jul 6, 2023 Commercial Fishing, Featured, Salmon, Sustainable Seafood, Working Waterfronts Leave a Comment on the Marine Fish Conservation Network page

After months of fighting to save Southeast Alaska’s Chinook salmon troll fishery from a misguided lawsuit filed by the Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC), our fleet is going fishing!

On June 21st the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the District Court’s May decision to close the fishery while the National Marine Fisheries Service addresses technical issues with its Endangered Species Act documents. We are deeply relieved that the appeals court followed the science.

The WFC lawsuit alleges that the Alaska troll fishery is a threat to Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW), a pod of salmon eating orca that live most of the year in Puget Sound. The substantial body of science on the topic establishes that the real threat to the SRKW is habitat damage from urbanization, industrial pollution, and noise disturbance in their home range–not fisheries. Even if fisheries were a threat, it takes twisted logic to identify the small boat, low volume, hook and line troll fishery operating over 800 miles away from the orcas’ home range as the problem. Closing Southeast Alaska’s troll fishery would not benefit SRKW or the salmon they depend on, but it would destroy the rural and indigenous families and villages that depend on the troll fishery. As the appeals court opined, the documented socioeconomic costs are not justified by the speculative environmental impacts claimed by the WFC.

The Ninth Circuit decision is also a testament to the groundswell of support that Alaska’s trollers received from tribes, conservation groups, businesses, local communities, the Alaska’s State Legislature, and Alaska’s Congressional delegation. From a scientific, cultural, and social justice perspective, this lawsuit is a misfire–and a major distraction from the crucially important work to recover Puget Sound orca.

Salmon, orcas, and our planet would be better served if we worked together to address the complex issues that threaten the future sustainability of our fisheries and coastal ecosystems: dams, urban pollution, mining, and climate change. Transferring the conservation burden and cost onto fishing families isn’t the answer–as experts assert. Lynne Barre, who has led the SRKW recovery program at the National Marine Fisheries Service since 2002, points out in her October 2022 written declaration that the WFC oversimplifies and overestimates the impacts of shutting down Southeast’s troll fishery, failing to account for the mobility of both Chinook and orca populations and their fluctuating migratory pathways.

The hard truth is that there are no shortcuts when it comes to restoring wild salmon. We have seen everywhere else in the world that without healthy habitat and free-flowing rivers, we cannot have healthy wild salmon. Alaska trollers understand this. We work to protect salmon habitat to protect our way of life, our communities, and ocean health.

If nothing else, I hope that our legal battle to save our small boat fisheries, communities, and way of life in Southeast Alaska can be a reminder to both fishermen and non-fishermen around the country that we need to work together to ensure our fisheries are sustainable and our oceans are healthy for generations to come.

An Alaska fishery has been pitted against orcas. Can both survive?

July 1, 2023 at 6:00 am Updated July 1, 2023 at 6:00 am

By Isabella Breda

Seattle Times staff reporter

In early May a Seattle federal judge put the brakes on this summer’s troll fishery in Southeast Alaska, ruling that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration must amend its 2019 report on the impact of the fishing on endangered southern resident orcas who prefer to eat the same Chinook. But the ruling was put on hold last month by a U.S. appeals court, which allowed the fishery to reopen, citing economic harm.

Shutting down salmon trollers won't save endangered orcas

June 25, 2023

By Tim Bristol

Special to The Seattle Times

Wild Fish Conservancy’s lawsuit accusing Southeast Alaska’s troll fishery of harming the southern resident orca population is not only an abuse of the Endangered Species Act, but it will not save Chinook nor those beleaguered orcas. Fishery experts and scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Service and elsewhere have concluded that Southeast Alaska and other Chinook fisheries are not likely to impede the orcas’ recovery. In fact, experts at NMFS say that Wild Fish Conservancy’s theory that Southeast Alaska’s troll fishery is to blame is scientifically weak, outdated and exaggerates fishery impacts. There is overwhelming evidence that other threats are affecting the residents, including pollution, industrial toxins, urbanization and habitat loss; this explains in part why the southern resident population is struggling while Northern and Alaska resident orca populations have doubled since 1980.

Tim Bristol is the executive director of nonprofit advocacy organization SalmonState. He is based in Homer, Alaska.

Alaska’s fishermen and communities celebrate court’s decision to allow Southeast Alaska’s Chinook troll fishery to open on July 1st

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 21, 2023

Sitka, AK - Southeast Alaska’s fishermen and communities welcomed the U.S. 9th District Court of Appeals’ decision on June 21st to keep Southeast Alaska’s Chinook troll fishery open while the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) addresses a technicality in its 2019 Biological Opinion for Southeast Alaska’s salmon fisheries. In its order, the federal appeals panel shared that there was ample evidence submitted showing that the impacts of shutting down the Alaska salmon fishing industry would “outweigh the speculative environmental threats” of keeping the fishery open.

“The court’s decision is a huge relief for hundreds of small-boat fishing families that rely on this fishery for their income,” said Linda Behnken, Executive Director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association. “We are relieved that the court followed the well-documented science establishing that Southeast Alaska’s troll fishery is not a threat to the Southern Resident Killer Whale population and that shutting down the fishery would do more harm than good.”

“We are deeply grateful for the countless hours and hard work that the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, National Marine Fisheries Service, and Alaska Trollers Association have put into defending our fishery from Wild Fish Conservancy’s reckless lawsuit,” said Jeff Farvour, commercial fisherman and board member for both the Alaska Trollers Association and the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association. “Thanks to them and the tremendous support from Alaska’s Congressional Delegation, State Legislature, Southeast Alaska tribes, communities, and conservation groups we can go fishing this summer.”

“The outpouring of support for Alaska’s salmon troll fishery through this ordeal has been heartening,” added Behnken. “Alaska definitely had our back. We have more work ahead to successfully conclude this lawsuit and to restore Washington’s salmon habitat, but today we are celebrating–and getting ready to go fishing!” 

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Updated: In "major victory" for Southeast Alaska trollers, federal appeals panel reverses fishery closure

June 21, 2023

By Nathanial Herz

The Southeast Alaska troll chinook fishery will open as scheduled July 1, after a federal appeals panel reversed a lower court ruling that would have kept the $85 million industry off the water.