Court Rules that Federal Fishery Managers Can Continue to Rely on Outdated Study to Manage the Trawling Industry

A U.S. District Court Judge in Alaska ruled Tuesday that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) can continue to rely on nearly 20-year-old environmental studies to inform federal management of the massive pollock trawling industry in the Bering Sea and Aleutians Islands.

In her ruling, Judge Sharon Gleason sided with federal fisheries managers in finding that a new environmental study was not necessary to inform annual catch limits for the federal groundfish fisheries. The annual decisions rely on studies from 2007 and 2004.

Although the court recognized there have been changes in the Bering Sea ecosystem since the time those studies were completed, including Western Alaska salmon declines, loss of sea ice, changes in the food web, and seabird die offs, the court deferred to the federal agency’s conclusion that these changes were not significant enough to require a new study. Significantly, however, the court acknowledged that federal fisheries’ management decisions, which authorize trawl fisheries that catch salmon as bycatch, contribute to the Western Alaska salmon decline.

The ruling was met with disappointment by the two tribal organization plaintiffs, the Association of Village Council Presidents (AVCP) and Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC), who filed the legal challenge against the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2023.

TCC and AVCP, who collectively work on behalf of nearly 100 Tribes and communities in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region, were represented by Earthjustice. The City of Bethel also intervened in the litigation in support of AVCP and TCC.

The plaintiffs and Earthjustice issued these statements in response to the ruling:

AVCP Chief Executive Officer Vivian Korthuis said, “As our environment changes, catastrophic impacts are occurring in our waters. Tribes and communities throughout Western Alaska have been deeply harmed by severe and sustained restrictions to subsistence salmon fishing, while the pollock trawl fishery continues to fish uninterrupted even though it continues to catch thousands of salmon as bycatch while our salmon populations are at historically low levels. Our people are suffering without salmon as the agencies responsible for protecting our natural resources have stood back and watched the devastation unfold. The lack of salmon in our region has become a humanitarian crisis, the likes of which we have never before experienced. Despite this setback, we will continue to fight with all available tools and use all avenues to end the salmon crisis.”

TCC Chief/Chairman Brian Ridley said, “We are deeply disappointed by this decision, which allows the National Marine Fisheries Service to continue relying on outdated studies while our salmon populations collapse. For years, we have attended North Pacific Fishery Management Council meetings and listened to the pollock industry blame climate change for declining salmon runs. Yet, in court, federal fisheries managers argue that these same impacts don’t warrant a new Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). You can’t have it both ways. I will use this decision in future Council meetings to ensure that industry cannot continue using climate change as a scapegoat for poor salmon returns. We must correct how NMFS manages the natural resources it is responsible for protecting—because if they don’t believe climate change is the cause, then that leaves only poor management decisions and bycatch as the obvious answers.”

Earthjustice attorney Kate Glover said, “We are disappointed with this result, but we will continue to fight alongside our clients to defend their way of life. While the judge deferred to the agency in ruling that a new environmental study is not needed, the judge also agreed that federal fisheries management contributes to Western Alaska salmon declines.  These salmon declines, along with rapid changes in the ocean ecosystem, are causing a crisis for Western and Interior Alaska communities and we need fisheries managers to respond to that crisis with real changes in fisheries management.”

Background

The Yukon-Kuskokwim region is one of the most cash-poor regions of the state, making the salmon harvest particularly important for food security as well as the continuation of the region’s cultures. Households share salmon with other households and communities to ensure that all community members have enough to eat. Since at least 2007, Chinook salmon stocks in Western Alaska have been in decline, followed by collapses in chum and coho salmon stocks over the last three years.

In addition to catastrophic salmon declines, the Bering Sea has experienced warming ocean temperatures, loss of sea ice, shifts in the abundance and distribution of fish species, massive seabird die-offs, decreased nutrient productivity, and a variety of other changes cascading across the ecosystem.