One significant facet of the court's ruling took issue with fishermen collecting money from the fishery without actively participating, which the court determined was not in line with the intent of the Commercial Fisheries Limited Entry Act. The Board of Fisheries held an emergency teleconference and modified the rules of the co-op to require each participant to make at least 10 deliveries on their permit card, but not necessarily on their own boat, in an attempt to put the fishery in line with the court ruling and allow it to go forward.
This adjustment ended up back in court and came up lacking in the eyes of Anchorage Superior Court Justice William Morse. Morse felt it was still too radical a departure from the provisions of the Limited Entry Act without authorization from the Legislature, and still did not require an adequate level of participation from fishermen, which seemed to doom the co-op for the season. Assistant Attorney General Lance Nelson, who is representing the state, stepped in to request that the Supreme Court delay Morse's ruling until after the season. The court agreed, a final move allowing the fishery to go forward for this year. The issue most likely will end up in the Legislature's lap next session, possibly making necessary changes to the Limited Entry Act that will satisfy the courts.
In a press release, Deputy Attorney General Scott Nordstrand said, "The Supreme Court's order signals that the state is likely to prevail on this appeal. We are pleased that the fishery can proceed without further delay."
An Arizona-based conservation group has filed a second suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to provide promised protections for rapidly declining sea otter populations in the Aleutian Islands and Alaska Peninsula. The Center for Biological Diversity asserts that this sea otter population has declined as much as 95 percent and faces extinction without these protections.
One popular theory for the cause of the decline is predation by killer whales that have lost the bulk of one of their main food sources in the area, Stellar sea lions, and have begun eating the otters. However, many biologists note that it is probably more complicated than that. Stellar sea lions are now protected under the Endangered Species Act after a similar population decline beginning in the 1970s, and their populations appear to have stabilized.
The CBD filed its first lawsuit against the Bush administration in 2004, which led to a proposed rule to protect the otters. The CBD Web site states that "despite having a completed rule to protect these sea otters under the Endangered Species Act and a dedicated funding source to formally protect the sea otters, the Bush administration has refused to finalize the protections," prompting the second lawsuit filed in U.S. Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., last week.
One reason sea otters are particularly important to the ecosystem is because they prey on sea urchins, which eat kelp. Left unchecked, the urchins will destroy the kelp beds that provide nurseries where young fish find protection from predators.
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council and the Alaska Board of Fisheries will have a joint meeting to evaluate Alaska Board of Fisheries proposals for state-waters pollock trawl fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands areas. The meeting takes place Tuesday and Wednesday in Juneau. For more information, contact Bill Wilson at (907) 271-2809 or e-mail bill.wilson@noaa.gov.
Cristy Fry has commercial fished in Homer since 1978 and has also designed and built gear for the industry. She currently longlines for halibut and sablefish, and gillnets salmon in upper Cook Inlet aboard the F/V Realist.
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