Saving Seafood

Law

“I just did the job” – StarKist’s Stephen Hodge explains role in price-fixing scheme

January 22, 2021 — Stephen L. Hodge says he’s sorry for his role in the price-fixing scandal that has rocked the U.S. canned tuna industry, resulting in massive fines for two of the companies involved, including his former employer, and a prison sentence for one of the scheme’s leaders.

Hodge, a former senior vice president of sales for StarKist who testified on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in the criminal price-fixing cases against StarKist, as well as Bumble Bee Foods and former Bumble Bee President and CEO Chris Lischewski, avoided jail time in his sentencing, which took place 13 January.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Conservation groups ask federal judge to halt salmon plan

January 22, 2021 — Salmon and steelhead advocates returned to court to again ask a federal judge to overturn the government’s plan to operate dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers in a way that pushes the fish closer to extinction.

The National Wildlife Federation and several other conservation groups, including Idaho Rivers United and the Idaho Conservation League, contend a biological opinion issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and associated documents and decisions by the Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and Bonneville Power Administration violate the Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedures Act.

Last year, the agencies completed an environmental impact statement ordered by Judge Michael Simon of Portland after he found the government’s 2014 plan to be illegal. In it, the agencies dismissed the idea of breaching the four lower Snake River dams as too costly while also admitting that dam removal offered the fish the best chance of recovery. Instead, the agencies chose a plan built largely on spilling water at the dams to help speed juvenile salmon and steelhead downstream during their migration to the Pacific Ocean.

Todd True, the lead EarthJustice attorney representing the plaintiffs, said the groups felt forced to file.

Read the full story at The Spokesman-Review

Searchable Maine fishing laws to make compliance easier

January 19, 2021 — The newest version of Maine’s fishing laws includes a searchable database designed to make it easier for anglers to comply with the rules.

The website allows fishermen to search by water body, town, county or fishing code. That allows anglers to search terms such as “fly fishing only” and “open to open water fishing” to get a better idea of where they can fish.

The state website also includes a map-based online tool called FLOAT, which stands for Fishing Laws Online Angling Tool. It allows fishermen to easily find out which of the thousands of inland waterways in Maine have special fishing rules.

Read the full story at the Caledonian Record

Alaska governor plans appeal of mine project denial

January 11, 2021 — Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said the state will appeal the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ rejection of a key permit for a proposed copper and gold mine in a region that supports the world’s largest sockeye salmon runs.

Dunleavy, in a statement Friday, called the corps’ decision flawed and said the state has to keep a federal agency “from using the regulatory process to effectively prevent the State from fulfilling a constitutional mandate to develop its natural resources.”

The corps in November determined the project was “contrary to the public interest,” a finding lauded as the right one by Alaska’s U.S. senators, who, like Dunleavy, are Republicans. The corps’ decision stood out following their release of an environmental review last summer that the developer of the Pebble Mine saw as positive and as laying the groundwork for key federal approvals.

Canada-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., which owns the Pebble Limited Partnership, the company working to advance the project, also has said it will pursue an appeal.

Alannah Hurley, executive director of United Tribes of Bristol Bay, said it’s “pretty enraging” that Dunleavy “is proving that he will go above and beyond for this project.”

“It just shows how out of touch he is with Alaskans,” she said.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

California sues Clearwater, PAFCO, others over lack of cadmium, lead warnings

January 6, 2021 — The U.S. state of California has sued five seafood companies, including Clearwater Seafoods and Pacific American Fish Company (PAFCO), accusing them of failing to properly label their products as containing lead and cadmium.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed a lawsuit on 29 December alleging violations of the state’s Proposition 65 and Unfair Competition Law. The suit claims Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada-based Clearwater Seafoods; Vernon, California-based PAFCO; Hanover, Maryland-based Rhee Bros. Inc.; City of Industry, California-based Seaquest Seafood Corporation; and Paramount, California-based Jayone Foods Inc. “knowingly and intentionally sold products that exposed California consumers to lead or cadmium without providing a clear and reasonable warning that the products contained these toxic chemicals.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Investors sue parent company behind gold mine in Alaska

January 4, 2020 — The company behind a proposed copper and gold mine in Alaska faces lawsuits from investors claiming it misled shareholders who have seen an 85% drop in stock value since the summer.

Two lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court in New York claim Northern Dynasty Minerals violated federal securities law when project executives did not fully provide information about the project, The Anchorage Daily News reported Friday.

Developer The Pebble Limited Partnership and parent company Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. sought to build a mine about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage and near the headwaters of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery in Bristol Bay.

The project was criticized by environment groups and also condemned by Alaska Republican U.S. Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Seattle Times

High Court Finds Aquaculture Worker Covered by Workers’ Comp

December 31, 2020 — An aquaculture worker who got hurt tending to salmon raised in offshore pens is covered under state law, but not under the federal law that defines some of the rights for mariners, Maine‘s supreme court ruled.

The court ruled unanimously on Tuesday in a Workers’ Compensation Board appellate division decision involving a woman who was injured while working for Cooke Aquaculture’s salmon operation off the coast of Eastport.

The woman, Darla Potter, slipped and hurt her knee while caring for salmon, which were raised in cages located less than a mile offshore.

Great Falls Insurance Company contended that the Workers’ Compensation Board lacked jurisdiction because Potter should be considered to be a “seaman” under federal admiralty law known as the Jones Act.

The Supreme Judicial Court said the closest analogy to an aquaculture operation is an offshore oil platform, and it noted that oil platform workers have never been found to fall under the Jones Act jurisdiction.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

Mine developer to appeal US decision to reject Alaska permit

December 21, 2020 — A mine developer says it will appeal a Trump administration decision denying a permit to build a copper and gold mine in southwest Alaska.

Northern Dynasty Minerals President and CEO Ron Thiessen said in a statement Thursday that the government’s rejection was “without precedent in the long history of responsible resource development in Alaska,” the Anchorage Daily News reported.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied the company a permit in November, saying its plans to develop the mine were against the public’s interest and did not adhere to the Clean Water Act.

The proposed mine would have been built on state-owned land in the Bristol Bay region, near the world’s largest wild sockeye salmon fishery.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Shareholders file Pebble Mine class-action suit, parent company plans permit appeal

December 18, 2020 — This week, a group of shareholders filed a class action lawsuit against Northern Dynasty, claiming the company and its directors misled shareholders about the viability of the proposed Pebble Mine and that its stock prices were artificially inflated between Dec. 21, 2017, and Nov. 25, 2020.

Northern Dynasty is the parent company of the Pebble Limited Partnership, which owns the mineral rights to the Pebble deposit and has been promoting the mine to investors and engaging in the permitting process with Alaska’s U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

On Nov. 25, the Corps denied the permit application, stating the proposal did not “comply with Clean Water Act guidelines.” The stock took a nosedive of more than 50 percent immediately following the announcement. The permit process had been considered all but dead before the 2016 election of President Donald J. Trump, whose administration allegedly negotiated with Pebble officials to allow the permitting process to run its course.

On Dec. 17, 2020, two days after the class action filing, Northern Dynasty published a press release detailing its plans to file an appeal of the Corps’ decision, citing the quality of its mitigation plan to compensate for the degradation of habitat in the process of mining the deposit’s heavy metals.

Read the full story at National Fisherman