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Fishing planet alaska chinook12/24/2023 ![]() ![]() In legal filings, the state of Alaska argued that the fishing closure would create an “economic catastrophe” in Southeast Alaska, costing $29 million a year in economic losses without significant benefit for the orcas. ![]() The court order has outraged commercial fishers and residents of fishing communities throughout Southeast Alaska. Judge Jones endorsed the magistrate’s findings in a formal court order (PDF 137 kb) last week - five months after Peterson’s recommendation (PDF 643 kb), with the winter season already over and summer fishing scheduled to begin July 1. Magistrate Judge Michelle Peterson, who reviewed the legal arguments and scientific evidence in the case, found that the proposed mitigation measures were too speculative and slow to develop, as I described in Our Water Ways last November.Īfter consideration, Peterson followed up her overall findings in December by recommending suspension of the winter and summer troll fishery until a revised biological opinion can be developed to show how the fishery could proceed without creating an undue risk to the whales. Such measures include a “prey-increase program” using salmon hatcheries. Chinook, a species listed as threatened, is the primary prey for the Southern Residents, which themselves are listed as endangered.Ī biological opinion, issued in 2019 by the National Marine Fisheries Service, concluded that the Southeast Alaska Chinook fishery does affect the whales, but it would not put them at risk of extinction, provided that mitigation measures be implemented. District Judge Richard Jones in Seattle, revokes a federal permit that has, until now, allowed fishing to continue under the Endangered Species Act. ![]() The court order, signed last week by U.S. The state has launched an appeal of the ruling. ![]() Southern Resident killer whales, which frequent Puget Sound, are expected to benefit from more Chinook salmon later this year, as expressed in a court order calling for the suspension of a major troll fishery in Southeast Alaska.Īlaska state officials are dismayed by the ruling, saying that closing this commercial fishery would have a devastating effect on fishing families in Alaska and on many small communities along the coast. ![]()
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