Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Annette Island Packing Company reopens its doors to the troll fleet

April 10, 2024 — Troll fishermen in southern Southeast Alaska have a new buyer for their king salmon. The Metlakatla Indian Community announced on April 4th that they had reopened the Annette Island Packing Company.

The Metlakatla processor operated for nearly a century until they stopped buying fish in 2018. Now, the 100% native-owned and operated plant is opening its doors again, though slowly. Metlakatla Mayor Albert Smith says it’s a big win for the community. Local fishermen will now be able to sell their catch in town, instead of bringing it all the way to Ketchikan.

“It’s something that we’ve been wanting to do for the last few years and we’re very excited to get the doors back open. We’re starting off slow with troll king salmon and our local halibut fishery. So we’ll be sending out fresh product. But it’s a good start,” Smith said.

Read the full article at KRBD

Biden administration could wade into lawsuit over Southeast Alaska tribal fishing rights

December 8, 2023 — The Biden administration could jump into a high-profile lawsuit involving a Southeast Alaska Native community that’s fighting with Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration about its fishing rights.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in a filing late Tuesday that it’s considering submitting a friend-of-the-court brief in the dispute between the state and the Metlakatla Indian Community, a tribal government.

The three-year-old Metlakatla lawsuit, filed by the tribal government against Dunleavy’s administration, centers on the extent of fishing rights granted to the community’s members.

The Justice Department didn’t say which side it would take in the suit.

But the Biden administration has already filed a lawsuit against the state that it says is aimed at protecting the rights of rural subsistence fishermen in Southwest Alaska. And its filing Tuesday describes the federal government as having a stake in the Metlakatla lawsuit because it is the “trustee of the community’s federally reserved tribal fishing rights, with a general trust responsibility to preserve and protect those rights.”

Read the full story at the Alaska Beacon

State asks federal court to dismiss suit over Metlakatla tribal members’ fishing rights

October 20, 2020 — State attorneys are asking a federal court judge to dismiss a fishing rights case brought by Metlakatla Indian Community at the southeastern tip of the state.

The state’s sole native reserve — that’s similar to Lower 48 reservations — argues Congress granted it the right to fish in its traditional waters — even outside the marine boundaries of the Annette Islands Reserve. The tribe says the state thus doesn’t have the right to require state fishing permits for tribal members in state waters.

But in a 38-page filing Thursday, Department of Law attorneys argue that’s not the case.

“…in 1891, did Congress intend to grant off-reservation fishing rights to the Metlakatlans? The answer is ‘no,’” state attorneys write.

They say the full text of the 1891 law establishing the Annette Islands Reserve as a permanent home for native Tsimshian people, and congressional debate around that time show that lawmakers never intended to grant residents the right to fish outside the reserve’s boundaries.

Read the full story at KRBD

Alaska Tribal Group Sues Over Commercial Fishing System

August 18, 2020 — An Alaska tribal group has filed a lawsuit against state officials claiming the commercial fishing permit system unfairly prevents local anglers from fishing on their traditional grounds.

The lawsuit filed by the Metlakatla Indian Community asks a federal judge to prevent the state from requiring commercial fishing permits for tribal members, Alaska’s Energy Desk reported Monday.

The tribe named Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and other administration officials in the lawsuit that says the tribe’s fishing rights are guaranteed by Congress.

The Metlakatla people have lived on Annette Island in southeast Alaska since the late 19th century, when about 820 Tsimshian people migrated with an Anglican missionary from coastal British Columbia to the uninhabited islands south of Ketchikan.

Congress established the Annette Islands Reserve as a permanent, self-sustaining home for the tribe in 1891. Federal authorities set aside waters within 3,000 feet (914 meters) of shore exclusively for the people of Metlakatla in 1916.

Read the full story at U.S. News