Fishermen’s Attorney Comments on Ninth Circuit Ruling in Chinook Salmon Case – Decision Lets Feds Underestimate Salmon Population—and Devastate West Coast Fishing Industry; Appeal Is Likely

Contact: Russell Brooks
Phone: (425) 576-0484

Bellevue,WA; July 06, 2006: Today a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld federal regulations that drastically curtailed salmon fishing off the Pacific Coast because of low projected returns of salmon that will spawn naturally in the Klamath River.

The court rejected a challenge brought by coastal fishermen and fishing business owners who argued that the National Marine Fisheries Service was wrong not to count all hatchery salmon in determining the salmon population.

Russ Brooks, managing attorney for Pacific Legal Foundation’s Northwest Center, represents the fishermen who brought the challenge. In response to today’s ruling, he had this comment:

“The Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Act requires federal regulators to manage all members of a species the same. Hatchery chinook are not only biologically identical to those that will spawn naturally, but many hatchery chinook do return to spawn naturally. So the Fisheries Service is wrong when it doesn’t count all hatchery chinook as part of the returning chinook population. The Service is deliberately lowballing the number of chinook that will return to the Klamath River. If all hatchery chinook were counted as part of the population, the Service would realize there is no need to drastically reduce salmon fishing.

“Because the three-judge panel did not recognize the legal requirement that regulators must count all chinook, this decision is ripe for appeal—first to the full Ninth Circuit for rehearing, and, possibly, to the United States Supreme Court.”

The case is Oregon Trollers v. Gutierrez. For a copy of the decision click here.

About Pacific Legal Foundation
Pacific Legal Foundation is the oldest and largest public interest legal organization dedicated to property rights, balanced environmental policy, and limited government.