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The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, issued on the eve of the Aleutian Islands golden king crab fishery, required fisheries officials to allocate 24.4 percent of the total allowable harvest for the western Aleutian fishery to a vessel owned by Partnership Alaska Trojan Fisheries, headquartered in Newport, Ore. Other participants in that fishery were allocated a reduced amount of crab as a result.
Phil Smith, director of the federal restricted access management program for NOAA Fisheries in Juneau, said he was flabbergasted at the court's decision. "I don't suppose the industry is very happy, but we have to follow the law," said Smith, who oversaw reallocation of quota shares for an allowable harvest of 2.4 million pounds of crab in the western Aleutian fishery.
The eastern Aleutian golden king crab allocation of 2.7 million pounds of crab was unaffected by the court's decision.
Mike Stanley, a Juneau attorney representing Ted Painter, a managing partner in Alaska Trojan, said he was encouraged by the court's decision to issue an injunction in his client's behalf. "We did not in any way underestimate the challenge, but I found we had a solid argument," Stanley said. Stanley said he felt the allocation to his client was fair.
NOAA officials previously denied the Alaska Trojan application on a finding that the vessel did not satisfy regulatory requirements for quota share. Jonathan Pollard, an attorney with NOAA general counsel in Juneau, said that NOAA concluded, and the U.S. District Court agreed, that the Alaska Trojan did not deserve a permanent license limitation program permit, based on its harvest history. The federal circuit court hearing the matter on appeal granted interim relief and ordered an interim quota, pending a final ruling, Pollard said.
The injunction will stand until a final decision is made by the three judges on the case. "There is no way of knowing when they will issue a decision," Stanley said.
The nine-month fishery opened Aug. 15. NOAA officials said 43 persons or businesses hold fishing and/or processing quota shares for the eastern and western Aleutian fisheries.
Total allowable catch for other Bering Sea and Aleutian island crab fisheries now included under the crab rationalization program will be announced in late September for the season beginning Oct. 15.
Sue Salveson, acting regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries in Alaska, described the start of the Aleutian crab fisheries as a shakedown season "on what is no doubt the most complicated and intricate fishery management system in this country, and perhaps the world.
"It was a stretch for this agency to get the rules written and published, to get the quota applications processed and the quota allocated, and to work with the state to develop and implement a new electronic reporting system in time for the golden king crab season," she said.
The new rationalized crab management program was designed after several years of effort by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, and enacted by Congress in January 2004 as an amendment to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. A major point of contention during deliberations was whether to include allocations for processors.
Under the new system, each participant is told before the season opens the amount of crab he or she may harvest or process. The system allows fishermen to decide when to fish during the nine-month season, to optimize their effort to meet market demand and improve product quality, and fish under safer conditions. Under the old system, crab boats often were forced to fish the high seas under inclement weather conditions, or else risk the catch being taken by other vessels.
The new system encourages participants to form voluntary crab harvesting cooperatives that can fish individual fishing quota collectively and cooperatively. A group of four or more distinct, separate harvesting quota shareholders may come together to form a cooperative. A total of six distinct cooperatives formed to fish the Aleutian Islands golden king crab fisheries.
Over time, because of the ability of participants to join cooperatives and purchase quota from other participants, the total number of participants and active vessels is expected to decline, NOAA officials said. In that way, the fisheries will be "rationalized" to provide benefits to both those leaving the fishery and those remaining, the federal officials said.
Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaska
journal.com.
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