July 17, 2024 — A panel of federal judges will hear oral arguments on Thursday, July 18, in an appeal of a lower court ruling that threatened to halt the Southeast troll fishery for king salmon.
The Alaska Trollers Association, the State of Alaska, and other entities are appealing a Washington District Court ruling that found NOAA Fisheries violated endangered species and environmental laws. The ruling says they did so by allowing the Southeast trollers to harvest king salmon at rates that harmed a small population of endangered killer whales in Puget Sound, as well as well as several king salmon populations from the lower Columbia River.
That ruling would have effectively stopped Southeast trollers from fishing for kings — at least, until the National Marine Fisheries Service corrects its environmental analysis. But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay on the lower court order in June of 2023, allowing the fishery to stay open — for now.
The Washington-based conservation group Wild Fish Conservancy filed the initial suit four years ago. The organization’s case rests on the idea that the trollers are intercepting salmon that would otherwise feed the Puget Sound killer whales. The Wild Fish Conservancy has since petitioned the federal government to give Endangered Species Act protections to king salmon across the entire Gulf of Alaska.