Court Decision - AK ordered to reduce Salmon Harvest

[searun]

Federal Court Finds NOAA’s Harvest Mitigation Proposal Violated Endangered Species Act Protections for Wild Chinook and Southern Resident Killer Whales — Wild Fish Conservancy

wildfishconservancy.org

Interesting Federal Court decision ordering AK harvest of Chinook - upshot is this ruling could pass more Chinook from BC through to our SRKW and rivers - few headlines:

September 29, 2021— A groundbreaking new ruling from the federal court in Seattle is calling into question the continuation of decades of unsustainable commercial salmon harvest in Southeast Alaska, a decision that may lead to increased available prey for starving Southern Resident killer whales and allow protected Chinook populations to rebuild in rivers throughout the coast.

On Monday, in response to a lawsuit filed by Wild Fish Conservancy, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michelle Peterson issued a report and recommendation finding the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is in violation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by relying on undeveloped and uncertain future mitigation to authorize commercial salmon harvest at levels that NOAA admits are pushing federally-protected Southern Resident orcas and wild Chinook closer to extinction.

 

[Aces]

Federal Court Finds NOAA’s Harvest Mitigation Proposal Violated Endangered Species Act Protections for Wild Chinook and Southern Resident Killer Whales — Wild Fish Conservancy

wildfishconservancy.org

Interesting Federal Court decision ordering AK harvest of Chinook - upshot is this ruling could pass more Chinook from BC through to our SRKW and rivers - few headlines:

September 29, 2021— A groundbreaking new ruling from the federal court in Seattle is calling into question the continuation of decades of unsustainable commercial salmon harvest in Southeast Alaska, a decision that may lead to increased available prey for starving Southern Resident killer whales and allow protected Chinook populations to rebuild in rivers throughout the coast.

On Monday, in response to a lawsuit filed by Wild Fish Conservancy, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michelle Peterson issued a report and recommendation finding the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is in violation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by relying on undeveloped and uncertain future mitigation to authorize commercial salmon harvest at levels that NOAA admits are pushing federally-protected Southern Resident orcas and wild Chinook closer to extinction.

Wild Fish conservancy will be after us next

 

[searun]

Well that court decision could be sparking some of those thoughts in the ENGO camp for sure. Canada has already put in place a significantly robust recovery plan which also includes fishery reductions and other mechanisms such as sanctuaries, increased hatchery production, mobile avoidance (400m bubble) etc. AK has done, well....nothing, and yet 97% of AK harvest is on fish from their neighbours most of whom SRKW are dependent.

 

[mbowers]

Federal Court Finds NOAA’s Harvest Mitigation Proposal Violated Endangered Species Act Protections for Wild Chinook and Southern Resident Killer Whales — Wild Fish Conservancy

wildfishconservancy.org

Interesting Federal Court decision ordering AK harvest of Chinook - upshot is this ruling could pass more Chinook from BC through to our SRKW and rivers - few headlines:

September 29, 2021— A groundbreaking new ruling from the federal court in Seattle is calling into question the continuation of decades of unsustainable commercial salmon harvest in Southeast Alaska, a decision that may lead to increased available prey for starving Southern Resident killer whales and allow protected Chinook populations to rebuild in rivers throughout the coast.

On Monday, in response to a lawsuit filed by Wild Fish Conservancy, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michelle Peterson issued a report and recommendation finding the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is in violation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by relying on undeveloped and uncertain future mitigation to authorize commercial salmon harvest at levels that NOAA admits are pushing federally-protected Southern Resident orcas and wild Chinook closer to extinction.

Downshot is AK can just build more pink salmon rancheries to outcompete the chinook and make up for the loss of revenue. Probably still a win but we'll see how big of a win.

 

[searun]

Yup, that is potentially coming to an end also. There will be a full blown North Pacific Survey this coming winter to investigate what is going on out there on the high seas and also determine carrying capacity among other research objectives. Many nations have the same question....is this practice of ocean ranching sustainable, is it impacting productivity of wild stocks etc. Research "may" lead to improved understanding and eventually agreements on establishing limits on these large scale releases of ranched fish.

 

[agentaqua]

One of the political factors that doesn't seem to get much media attention is what I consider to be the real reason why Canada mirrored NOAAs SRKW protection is to protect the seafood trade into the US. From a perspective of having minimal impacts on existing Canadian fisheries - Canada could have done different and/or additional restrictions than mirroring NOAAs measures as dictated by their Endangered Species Act, but Canada instead exactly mirrored NOAAs restrictions & closed areas so the USA couldn't use their Endangered Species Act to keep Canadian seafood out of the US market.

So, from that perspective we could be affected by this ruling...

 

[SpringVelocity]

Sound like bad news for our sector if you ask me. Great just another thing to deal with this year. I am sure Watershed is sharpening it's knives with the rest of them waiting to close down rec. fishery.

There is no proof again whales are starving. As I said and will stay again why are the northern orca populations way above historical? What is the target number of animals for SRKW recovery?

But yet no no one wants to address these answers. It's they are starving?

 

[agentaqua]

Good points/questions, WMY. I get really tired of the media pandering to and exclusively interviewing marine mammal enthusiasts and promoting their extremely biased narratives. Like every time J pod (SRKW) is late from what the whale watching lobby expects they immediately make the claim that either the members of J pod have died or are starving or died from starving, yada...yada...yada...

and then the SRKWs show-up and all their false assumptions and lack of credibility is instantly and magically forgotten.

That one male SRKW died at an age near the end of his expected lifecycle and w/o any proof whatsoever the interviewed mm enthusiasts/charterers made the claim he died of starvation - again - and then continued with the add-on claim that all fishing (esp. sportsfishing) should therefore cease. I think they were a Sooke-based operation that pulled that sh*t.

Sometimes a few SRKWs have showed signs of "starvation" (that term needs biological definition/refinement) in the past using drones to assess how thin they were. It is a fair jump from that to expand that assumption onto all SRKWs and that is due to solely low Chinook numbers, as well.

And as you say - the NRKWs are doing well - and they eat Chinook, as well. And they are expanding their range South into SRKW territory. Those facts rarely get any acknowledgement in the press and in the marine mammal lobby PR. Pretty hypocritical bunch, IMHO.

 

[searun]

Good points/questions, WMY. I get really tired of the media pandering to and exclusively interviewing marine mammal enthusiasts and promoting their extremely biased narratives. Like every time J pod (SRKW) is late from what the whale watching lobby expects they immediately make the claim that either the members of J pod have died or are starving or died from starving, yada...yada...yada...

and then the SRKWs show-up and all their false assumptions and lack of credibility is instantly and magically forgotten.

That one male SRKW died at an age near the end of his expected lifecycle and w/o any proof whatsoever the interviewed mm enthusiasts/charterers made the claim he died of starvation - again - and then continued with the add-on claim that all fishing (esp. sportsfishing) should therefore cease. I think they were a Sooke-based operation that pulled that sh*t.

Sometimes a few SRKWs have showed signs of "starvation" (that term needs biological definition/refinement) in the past using drones to assess how thin they were. It is a fair jump from that to expand that assumption onto all SRKWs and that is due to solely low Chinook numbers, as well.

And as you say - the NRKWs are doing well - and they eat Chinook, as well. And they are expanding their range South into SRKW territory. Those facts rarely get any acknowledgement in the press and in the marine mammal lobby PR. Pretty hypocritical bunch, IMHO.

Totally agree with your post, and an additional perspective is you can't use observations of body condition as a proxy for "starvation" without additional empirical evidence that supports this assumption. Anyone who has been to a hospital can see people who have similar "body conditions" giving the appearance they are starving....nothing could be farther from the truth of course. We have been asking for objective measures to assess if indeed the "sanctuaries" are producing any meaningful benefit for SRKW recovery....to date, there is nothing forthcoming. No science to support the efficacy of these measures. In fact, it appears the whales rarely utilize some of the areas protected as sanctuaries aimed at improving prey availability and foraging success. If the whales aren't actually utilizing these sanctuaries, then where is the recovery benefit?

 

[High Time]

Totally agree with your post, and an additional perspective is you can't use observations of body condition as a proxy for "starvation" without additional empirical evidence that supports this assumption. Anyone who has been to a hospital can see people who have similar "body conditions" giving the appearance they are starving....nothing could be farther from the truth of course. We have been asking for objective measures to assess if indeed the "sanctuaries" are producing any meaningful benefit for SRKW recovery....to date, there is nothing forthcoming. No science to support the efficacy of these measures. In fact, it appears the whales rarely utilize some of the areas protected as sanctuaries aimed at improving prey availability and foraging success. If the whales aren't actually utilizing these sanctuaries, then where is the recovery benefit?

I also totally agree with both your posts. These areas are posted as INTERIM Sanctuary Zones, with no definition of what interim means. So far the interim has been three years, and each year in the Pender Island Bluffs zone, the first sighting of SRKW has been later and later until this year, when the first confirmed sighting was into September. Even then they were sighted traveling towards Active Pass likely heading for the Fraser River. We all know that the whale avoidance concept that has been put forward in other areas would be more than enough protection for these whales should they ever actually appear in this area. I certainly hope the hard questions about this ridiculous farce of a sanctuary are being asked time and time again for DFO to show evidence of any benefit that has been provided. I doubt very much they can pass the red face test.

 

[SpringVelocity]

One of the main advocates for these whale zones lives in Pender Island. How ironic.

 

[High Time]

These advocates are on their own little ego stroking power trips.Basically they are big fish in a small pond. The ones that live on the bluffs know full well how useless their private little "sanctuary" is but would never admit it. I implore fishers that are able to actually converse with real DFO people, to continue to brow beat them on this issue.

 

[wildmanyeah]

Alaska has been stonewalling and ignoring these type of rulings for years. I don't see this time being any different.

For example you have the state of alaska who manages the fisheries asking for this case to be dismissed. Im sure the end result of all this will be some token 2% reduction or something like that.

 

[OldBlackDog]

Report sheds light on mysterious group of 'outer coast' killer whales

Researchers are giving us a glimpse of a little-known subset of killer whales that aren't often seen in B.C. waters.

www.cheknews.ca

 

[SpringVelocity]

Just came out today.

Southern resident killer whales do not lack summer prey: UBC researchers | Globalnews.ca

Southern resident killer whales may be thinner than their northern resident cousins, but UBC researchers say that's not likely due to a summer prey shortage in the Salish Sea.

globalnews.ca