Federal Court Upholds Abundance-Based Management of Halibut Bycatch

A federal district court judge has upheld Amendment 123 to the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands Groundfish Fishery Management Plan, keeping in effect the abundance-based management of halibut bycatch by the Amendment 80 fleet.

The ruling was handed down Nov. 8 in Anchorage by U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason.

The plaintiff in the case, the Groundfish Forum, a non-profit trade organization based in Seattle, represents five companies and 17 trawl catcher-processors that comprise the Amendment 80 sector.

The Amendment 80 sector, which harvests groundfish in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI), is governed by the groundfish fishery management plan (FMP) developed by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, pursuant to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

The groundfish FMP allocates the harvest of target species and sets limits on halibut bycatch, or prohibited species catch (PSC), for each of the four different sectors operating in the BSAI, including the Amendment 80 sector.

Before Amendment 123, the halibut bycatch limit for all four BSAI groundfish sectors was a static limit set in metric tons. Amendment 123 implemented a halibut bycatch limit based on halibut abundance for the Amendment 80 sector only.

Under Amendment 123 if the halibut abundance is high, the Amendment 80 sector’s halibut bycatch limit is unchanged from the static limit in effect before Amendment 123. When halibut abundance falls below high abundance, the Amendment 80 sector’s halibut bycatch limit is reduced from 10% to 35% below that limit.

Plaintiffs contended that Amendment 123 violated the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the Administrative Procedure Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, and sought an order vacating the amendment. Gleason denied the plaintiff’s request for relief and dismissed their claims.

The Central Bering Sea Fisherman’s Association (CBSFA), an intervenor-defendant in the lawsuit, is a Community Development Quota entity for St. Paul in the Pribilof Islands and manages CDQ allocations of halibut, crab and groundfish to the community, in addition to the group’s further investments in Bering Sea fisheries.

CBSFA President Ray Melevidov said that with the ruling that halibut fishing families in the community can now be assured that the halibut resource will be managed more fairly and appropriately.

“The ruling upholds the Council’s decision, and rightly so. The Council is where fisheries management decisions should be taking place,” he said. “I hope this decision strengthens people’s trust in the Council process and the Council’s ability, and deters future attempts at fisheries management by litigation.”

“We are thrilled that the court upheld the North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s decision to tie halibut bycatch caps in the Bering Sea to halibut abundance,” said Linda Behnken, executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association in Sitka, and a former council member.

“Abundance-based management is the cornerstone of sound resource policy,” she said. “This is an important step toward better management of the halibut resource and halibut fishery.”

Groundfish Forum Executive Director Chris Woodley did not respond to a request for comment by the deadline for this article.

Source: https://fishermensnews.com/federal-court-upholds-abundance-based-management-of-halibut-bycatch/