Cook Inlet Salmon Management
UCIDA vs. National Marine Fisheries Service
In January of 2013, the United Cook Inlet Drift Association (UCIDA) filed a lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the Secretary of Commerce, challenging the approval of a decision by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (the Council) to remove federal waters in Cook Inlet from the scope of the federal salmon fishery management plan. This case is currently pending before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, as case number 14-35928, and is under assessment by the mediation program for settlement potential.
There have been a lot of misstatements made about this case, including statements by some Alaska legislators and in several op-ed pieces by Howard Delo, Les Palmer and by Karl Johnstone (recently removed as Board of Fisheries Chairman), as to the purpose and scope of this case, and even as to the parties in this case. We hope that this brief statement provides clarification on the nature of this litigation.
UCIDA does not want federal management of the Cook Inlet fishery. We want the Council, in conjunction with the State and stakeholder groups, to write a Fisheries Management Plan (FMP) for Cook Inlet that complies with the 10 National Standards in the Magnuson Stevens Act, then delegate authority to the State to manage the fishery. This is the same method currently used in SE Alaska for salmon management and in other fisheries across the state, Bering Sea crab for example. We are not asking for anything out of the ordinary, we are only asking that the State be held to the same management standards in Cook Inlet that they have to follow in other areas.
Read the full article here.
