By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

A controversial salmon fishery got under way at Chignik June 5, salvaged by an Alaska Supreme Court decision to stay final judgment in litigation challenging a cooperative fishing effort.

Within the first 24 hours of the fishery, preliminary estimates showed about 6,000 sockeye salmon harvested, but the next 24 hours were expected to result in a larger harvest, said Aaron Poetter, assistant area manager for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The cooperative purse seine fishery, organized by the Chignik Seafood Producers Cooperative, almost didn't happen. Its very existence is being challenged in the Alaska court system on grounds that it violates the state's Limited Entry Fisheries Act.

"I'm not saying what (the cooperative) did isn't noble, but they shouldn't do it at the expense of those who don't want to join the cooperative," said Soldotna attorney Chuck Robinson, who argued the case on behalf of non-cooperative fishermen.

The cooperative organized in 2002 to slow the pace of the fishery and deliver a higher quality product, assuring fishermen a better price from the processor.

About three-fourths of the fishermen in the Chignik fishery are members of the cooperative. Fishermen who are not members of the cooperative were among the plaintiffs who challenged the legality of the co-op.

Art Nelson, chairman of the Alaska Board of Fisheries, said that regardless of how the court case ends up on appeal, he was glad that the Alaska Supreme Court acted quickly to end disruption of the fishery for the 2005 season.

"There are going to have to be tweaks and massages, and there are some different ways we could look at better regulations that can accommodate non-co-op folks in a better fashion," he said.

Lengthy controversy and a ruling earlier this year by the Alaska Superior Court voiding the cooperative prompted the Alaska Board of Fisheries in early May to adjust the rules governing the co-op. To allow the cooperative to fish after the Superior Court ruling, the board added a provision requiring all members to actively participate in the fishery. Under the provision, all cooperative members were required to make at least 10 deliveries of fish. The Supreme Court's most recent ruling allows the fishery to operate this season under the new provision.

Less than a week before the fishery was slated to begin, Superior Court Judge William Morse ruled that the emergency co-op regulation adopted by the Alaska Board of Fisheries was too large a departure from the provisions of the limited entry act to adopt without legislative authorization. Two days later, the Alaska Supreme Court granted the state's request for stay of final judgment in the litigation through the last day of the 2005 cooperative fishery.

"It's a major relief that so many people aren't going to be so harmed," said Axel Kopen, president of the co-op. "We were looking at a real disaster in the area, with people being cut off from their normal income."

Kopen said the starting price this year would be 85 cents a pound, and $1.07 a pound for live sockeye delivered to the area processor, NorQuest Seafoods.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at

margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.