Last year, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) adopted a policy to tie halibut trawl bycatch limits in the Bering Sea to abundance, rather than a flat number. In December, an organization representing groundfish trawlers sued NMFS in US District Court.
While the Bering Sea is far from Sitka, trawl bycatch of halibut impacts Sitka’s fisheries since halibut born in the Bering sea migrate to Southeast waters. Sitka’s assembly has already approved a resolution in support of the new policy. But at its regular meeting on June 25, it considered taking that support further by signing onto an amicus brief to support NMFS and other defendants in the federal court case.
Lauren Howard with the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association urged them to take that step.
“This issue hits really hard for a lot of us, I think, in this community. Our fisheries are a constant threat from many things, and trawl bycatch is definitely one of them,” Howards said. “If you think that the halibut resource is important for the community, then it’s important that we make the statement now.”
The amicus brief in question was prepared pro-bono by an attorney in Homer for the assembly’s consideration. The city’s contract attorney, Michael Gatti said he’d read it, and it was a good brief. He told the assembly they had three options- sign it as is, stick with the resolution they already passed, or have his firm develop a separate brief for Sitka, which he said could be costly and time consuming. Gatti felt the assembly’s resolution had the same strength and political impact as signing onto an amicus brief.
Assembly member Thor Christianson supported signing on to the amicus brief.
“I think it’s the strongest statement we can make,” Christianson said. “It’s not just the courts that I think we’re talking to. We’re talking to everybody, every fisherman in town who fishes… both longlining and salmon. I mean, bycatch is not just halibut.”
Assembly member Scott Saline also supported signing onto the amicus brief drafted by the Homer attorney that was ready to go.
“We’re all in the same boat, same ocean,” Saline said. “If Kodiak is gambling on it, and Cordova, that’s good enough for me.”
Assembly member Kevin Mosher felt more comfortable working with the city’s contracted attorney rather than a pro bono attorney. And while he believed in supporting the halibut bycatch limit (he co-sponsored the initiative) he worried about the city’s capacity to tackle extra legal issues at a time when it is without a dedicated municipal attorney.
“If we sign on to an amicus, every time there’s input or changes, he’s [Gatti] going to have to have himself or his people billing us hours to look over something that isn’t really much of a difference than if we just have the resolution,” Mosher said. “I think we should save our resources for the pressing legal matters at hand.”
And assembly member JJ Carlson felt more comfortable sticking with the resolution the assembly had already approved. With a tight deadline for filing the brief, which had been updated as recently as the day of the assembly meeting, the process felt rushed.
“This is a hard one because are we supporting an idea, or are we voting on a plan, on a document?” Carlson asked. “If we were tonight, right now, voting on an idea? Absolutely. Yes, with an exclamation point from me. But I don’t think that’s what we’re voting on. We’re voting on signing a piece of paper and the words on that piece of paper matter, and having reviewed those words matter.”
Ultimately a motion to join the amicus brief failed 3-4 with assembly members Carlson, Tim Pike, Kevin Mosher and Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz opposed.
