“In small villages trolling is one of the few things that you can do that provides year-round employment.” “It’s a big, big relief for me and all the trollers and all the people in the southeast who depend on the troll fishery,” Fujioka said.
Tad Fujioka, the chairman of the Seafood Producers Cooperative, said the troll fishermen in his cooperative would have likely faced a 50% pay cut if not for the appeals court's decision, leaving them with little since their margins are normally so narrow. “It is unfortunate that the Ninth Circuit determined the short-term economic interests of a few should be prioritized over the continued existence of these species and the current and future generations of First Nations, Tribal Nations, and communities throughout the Pacific Northwest,” the group said. It warned of unfathomable economic, ecological and cultural costs of losing West Coast Chinook salmon and Southern Resident killer whales, a population of orcas that spend summer and fall in Washington state’s Puget Sound. In a statement Wednesday, Wild Fish Conservancy said it was “disheartened” by the ruling. The conservation group said it would help provide more food for starving whales and help struggling king salmon populations along the West Coast, since most of the salmon caught in southeast Alaska spawn in rivers to the south. The winter Chinook season could also have been impacted by Jones’ decision. District Judge Richard Jones in Seattle ruled in favor of Wild Fish Conservancy and ordered the National Marine Fisheries Services to redo a biological opinion that’s required for the fishery to take place. “Thanks to the 9th Circuit, fishing season is on come July 1.” The ruling “recognized the absurdity of closing down a vital economic industry for an issue that is already being remedied by the federal government,” Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor said in a statement.
The opinion said the state and others who were part of the appeal established a sufficient likelihood that certain and substantial impacts of the lower court’s decision “outweigh the speculative environmental threats.” The ruling will allow the fishery to continue while the appeals court considers the lawsuit more broadly.
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