December 6, 2012 — A Washington judge ruled to uphold the rockfish catch share program in the Gulf of Alaska on procedural grounds. The technical ruling left unanswered the broader question of whether processors should be considered “fishing” operations under the Magnuson-Stevens Act and thus entitled to a guaranteed share of the harvest.
The rockfish program implemented in 2012 allocated shares of the total harvest to vessel owners, but did not guarantee processors a share of the harvest, as the prior pilot program had done. The rockfish program also allocates set amounts of high-value secondary targets such as sablefish and Pacific cod to catcher vessels.
Four Kodiak processors — Trident Seafoods, Ocean Beauty, Westward Seafoods, and North Pacific Seafoods — filed suit in January, asking for a guaranteed delivery of a portion of the harvest each year.
U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman upheld the program, denying the processors request, Nov. 30, after hearing oral argument in the case Nov. 19.
Pechman’s Nov. 30 order stated that the processors did not have standing to bring a National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, claim and that the economic argument made by Trident and the other processors didn’t qualify as an environmental concern protected by NEPA.
Pechman further wrote that without a NEPA violation, the plaintiffs had no grounds to make a claim based on the Magnuson-Stevens Act, or MSA. The MSA was the authority by which the National Marine Fisheries Service, or NMFS, implemented the catch share program.
The new rockfish program was crafted by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council over several years and was approved in June 2010. NMFS is charged under the MSA with implementing council programs.
Trident spokesman John Van Amerongen said the company had no comment on the judgment.
The program allocates northern rockfish, pelagic shelf rockfish, Pacific Ocean perch and secondary, more valuable targets: sablefish and Pacific Cod, to trawl catcher vessels and catcher-processors.
Rockfish are large, colorful fish that congregate either in schools (pelagic) or stay close to the bottom in rocky areas (non-pelagic).
Processors do receive some protections under the new program. Catcher vessels must belong to a cooperative that is associated with a shore-based processor, although the cooperatives can change processor affiliations, and no processor can receive more than 30 percent of the harvest, meaning at least four receive business.
Glenn Merrill, NMFS assistant regional administrator for Sustainable Fisheries, Alaska Region, said the ruling was narrowly focused on the procedural question.
Read the full story in the Alaska Journal