[3] Seattle Judge Dismisses Challenge To Current Harvest Practices

The lawsuit filed in Seattle district court calling on the federal government to reopen talks with Canada over fish interceptions has been dismissed.

The suit, brought by the Salmon Spawning and Recovery Alliance, a group of conservation-based angler groups and Snohomish County PUD, along with the Native Fish Society and the Clark-Skamania Flyfishers, argued that recent data show that Canadian interceptions of U.S. salmon stocks listed for ESA protection, especially from Puget Sound, are being harvested at levels too high to recover.

But Judge Ricardo Martinez ruled Sept. 12 that the defendants do not have standing to assert their claims, and that harvest levels now depleting the stocks may be due to other causes, such as ocean warming or natural population cycles.

"Further," wrote the judge, "the direct cause of the injury is the action of Canadian fishermen, independent third parties over whom this Court does not have jurisdiction."

Plaintiffs' attorney Svend Brandt-Erichsen told NW Fishletter that his clients have not decided whether to ask the judge to reconsider his ruling or appeal.

But in any case, the plaintiffs will move ahead in other litigation and will sue NOAA Fisheries over the Puget Sound Harvest Management Plan, Brandt-Erichsen said. He said harvest rates are too high for the fish to recover--a fact that federal scientists already acknowledge.

In related news, Alliance attorney Eric Redman has sent a letter to NOAA Fisheries head William Hogarth proposing treaty protection for listed salmon stocks on the West Coast under the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES).

Redman said the proposal should be offered at the next meeting of parties to the agreement in June 2007.

He said such a move may spark criticism because it would disrupt legitimate trade, but harvest practices could be adjusted to spare most ESA-listed fish by marking all hatchery-reared salmon and steelhead. "It would be cruelly ironic to conclude that there exists today too much trade in an ESA-listed native salmon to allow them to be listed and protected under CITES." Redman said in his Sept. 13 letter. -B. R.

Subscriptions and Feedback
Subscribe to the Fishletter notification e-mail list.
Send e-mail comments to the editor.

THE ARCHIVE :: Previous NW Fishletter issues and supporting documents.

NW Fishletter is produced by Energy NewsData.
Publisher: Cyrus Noë, Editor: Bill Rudolph
Phone: (206) 285-4848 Fax: (206) 281-8035