We supported the US District Court decision to halt the Southeast Alaska troll fishery, but the US appeal court did not
Groundbreaking decision would have allowed tens of thousands of Chinook to return to their home rivers in BC and the Pacific Northwest and provide food to endangered Southern Resident killer whales along the way.
Last week, Raincoast sent a letter in support of the US District court decision to halt the Southeast Alaska troll fishery during the summer and winter seasons. The SEAK troll targets migrating Chinook, over 90% of which are not salmon from Alaska. These Chinook are prey for endangered Southern Resident killer whales as they migrate to their home rivers in BC and the Pacific Northwest.
In 2020, the US based Wild Fish Conservancy brought a lawsuit charging that NOAA Fisheries violated environmental law when they allowed the Chinook troll fishery in Southeast Alaska to harvest unsustainable levels of Chinook salmon, thus preventing endangered whales and threatened Chinook from recovering. The US District court agreed that the law had been broken. In response, the court issued a second decision to remedy the situation: the Southeast Alaska summer and winter troll fishery must close. The State of Alaska, the Alaska Trollers Association, and NOAA Fisheries appealed these decisions.
Yesterday (June 21), the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal, ruled in favour of Alaska on the issue of the remedy – the immediate closing of the troll fishery. With this ruling, Alaska’s summer troll fishery will be allowed to proceed. The ruling on the remaining appeal has yet to be issued.
As fisheries close in Canada and the Pacific Northwest due to low salmon abundance, and we grapple with difficult measures to ensure Chinook prey is accessible for endangered Southern Resident killer whales, Southeast Alaska’s fisheries continue unrestricted because they do not bear any consequences from harvesting these fish. The consequences are borne by hungry killer whales and communities outside of Alaska. Read our letter describing the details of this issue. Listen to Misty MacDuffee on CKNW’s The Jill Bennet Show discussing this topic.
But there is a larger issue.
Southeast Alaska’s outside Chinook fisheries (both troll and sport) are not that different from BC’s outside fisheries that occur around Hadia Gwaii and on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. The main difference between BC and Southeast Alaska is that the Southeast Alaska fishery is harvesting Chinook from populations that mostly aren’t from Alaska. But both BC and Alaska are harvesting on the rearing grounds of immature Chinook. This is a problem.
The Pacific Salmon Commission estimates that up to half of the fish caught in these fisheries are not mature. This indirectly causes a form of ‘age’ or ‘growth’ overfishing. By removing individuals one or more years before they are scheduled to mature, it imparts selective pressures that encourage returning younger and smaller. While perpetuated by factors like climate change and hatchery competition that also exist, it is undeniable that Chinook have gotten significantly smaller at age and younger at maturity, over the last century.
“By removing individuals one or more years before they are scheduled to mature, it imparts selective pressures that encourage fish to return younger and smaller. This is a form of ‘age’ or ‘growth’ overfishing. While climate change and hatchery competition also are factors in this phenomenon, it is undeniable that Chinook have gotten significantly smaller at age and younger at maturity, over the last century.”
The second problem with harvest in these fisheries is that they occur on many schools of migrating Chinook from across the west coast homing to their natal rivers in BC and the Pacific Northwest. In fisheries lingo, harvesting on multiple populations of migrating fish is known as “mixed stock fishing.” It is broadly recognized as unsustainable. Even though hatchery fish can make up a significant percentage of migrating populations, wild and threatened fish of weaker populations are also present, and they can be harvested at levels far above what is sustainable. In the case of endangered populations, the level of harvest in these fisheries can prevent wild salmon from recovering and push them closer to extinction.
Both Raincoast and the Wild Fish Conservancy will have more to say about the impacts of these fisheries in the coming months, so stay tuned.
You can help
Raincoast’s in-house scientists, collaborating graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and professors make us unique among conservation groups. We work with First Nations, academic institutions, government, and other NGOs to build support and inform decisions that protect aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and the wildlife that depend on them. We conduct ethically applied, process-oriented, and hypothesis-driven research that has immediate and relevant utility for conservation deliberations and the collective body of scientific knowledge.
We investigate to understand coastal species and processes. We inform by bringing science to decision-makers and communities. We inspire action to protect wildlife and wildlife habitats.
