ALASKANS GET BEHIND EMBATTLED SOUTHEAST TROLLERS IN LAWSUIT

When a federal judge earlier this spring upheld an order to shut down the Southeast Alaska commercial Chinook troll fishery, many local organizations came to the defense of the region’s fishers.

“The court’s decision is disappointing, not only because it puts the future of Alaska’s small-boat fishing families in jeopardy, but it distracts from the larger, more urgent issues that are causing the continued decline of the Pacific Northwest’s Chinook and orca populations,” said Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association director Linda Behnken.

“The science and data clearly shows that habitat loss, dams, climate change, water pollution, and urbanization are harming salmon and orcas in the Northwest – not our hook-and-line fishery that operates almost 1,000 miles away and has done so sustainably for over 100 years.”

The remarks were in reference to Washington state-based Wild Fish Conservancy’s lawsuit against the federal government over its alleged mismanagement of Panhandle Chinook fisheries. The organization argued harvest there diminished Puget Sound returns, impacting local Chinook-dependent orcas known as southern resident killer whales.

SalmonState also came to the defense of Alaska fishermen, with executive director Tim Bristol referring to Wild Fish Conservancy’s suit as “misguided, irresponsible litigation – which in all probability won’t save a single endangered killer whale, but will ruin the livelihoods of thousands of Southeast Alaska’s most committed.”

SalmonState’s position is that reduced Chinook harvests from the fleet in recent years haven’t had any effect on either orcas or salmon from Washington waters. Instead, the decreasing numbers of fish are linked to “habitat destruction, dams, climate change, and contamination that are the driving problems feeding their continued decline.”

As for orcas, SalmonState said, “Killer whale populations in other parts of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, including in Southeast Alaska, have increased in recent years, and a recent study found that inbreeding is a factor in southern resident killer whale decline.”

Bristol added that saving wild salmon should be a collaborative effort between environmental groups and those who want to see wild salmon thrive along the West Coast.

“Instead of reaching out to trollers, or to others they target through their frequent lawsuits, the Wild Fish Conservancy is racing down a low road that will make it harder to save endangered salmon runs and threatens the people who rely most on wild salmon,” Bristol said. “The Wild Fish Conservancy’s approach to environmentalism is fatally flawed, and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms. This fight is far from over.”

For its part, a Wild Fish Conservancy lashed out at the National Oceanic and

We should all be thinking of our dads as we celebrate Father’s Day on June 18. Here’s hoping this family gets to enjoy some more Alaska outdoor bliss with Dad.

Some communities embrace a local dog and cat as a four-legged critter that wins over hearts. On Anchorage’s Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, it’s Betty, a blind black bear that locals want to take photos with.

“She’s almost the celebrity on the base,” James Wendland, chief officer with the JBER Conservation Law Enforcement Office, told Alaska’s News Source

“Everybody that knows of her wants to take a look and see her and get good pictures.”

Atmospheric Administration “for consistently approving unsustainable harvest plans that have failed fishers, wild salmon, and southern resident killer whales.”

The suit was filed over NOAA’s 2019 Southeast Alaska Biological Opinion, or biop, which provided federal Endangered Species Act coverage for fisheries there.

“Beyond the harm to Alaskan fishers, by allowing the overharvest and interception of Chinook from rivers throughout the coast to occur over so many decades, NOAA’s management has impacted and harmed many other tribal, First Nation, and coastal communities in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon whose local Chinook are being harvested far from home,” Wild Fish Conservancy said.

“In many cases, these communities have been forced to disproportionately shoulder the burden of wild salmon and orca recovery, while sacrificing their own cultural, social, and economic relationship with wild salmon. The Court’s decision is finally addressing this historic inequity and restoring control to communities coastwide over the destiny of salmon recovery in their home watersheds.”

$1,000

Whoever catches the largest halibut in this month’s Valdez Fish Derbies Halibut Hullabaloo (June 2-11) takes home 1,000 bucks. The ongoing Valdez Halibut Derby runs through Sept. 3. See the Outdoor Calendar on page 13 for more information.

““Our traditional economies are deeply rooted in the quality of our ecosystems and the food they provide, and Donlin gold mining operation puts our lifestyle at perpetual risk. Despite numerous chances to uphold their commitments to environmental sustainability and Indigenous peoples’ rights, Barrick has already failed to keep their promises by choosing the hazardous wet tailings impoundment over the considerably safer dry-stacking technique for mine tailings.”