Alaska Salmon Litigants Want Ruling Before New NOAA Analysis

Advocates sparring over a court order that could halt salmon harvests in southeast Alaska asked a federal appeals panel Thursday to rule in their respective favors ahead of renewed government analysis.

The Wild Fish Conservancy told the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that a district court abused its discretion by not halting federal fishery regulations that negatively impacted Southern Resident Killer Whales. The requested order, which was stayed, would have vacated a 2019 National Marine Fisheries Service biological opinion concerning the orcas.

The conservancy sued the NMFS in 2020. The plaintiffs said the agency’s 2019 biological ...