The federal government’s failure to responsibly manage commercial trawling is literally having an adverse downstream impact on the City’s tax base and residents.
The Bethel City Council voted unanimously to support a resolution that directs the City to join as amicus or intervenor in pending federal litigation supporting an updated environmental impact statement and fisheries management plan for groundfish fisheries of the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and Gulf of Alaska.
The lawsuit is against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the original action was filed in U.S. District Court in Anchorage by the Association of Village Council Presidents (AVCP) and the Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC) challenging the NMFS decision on April 7, 2023.
Resolution 23-10 detailing the support was introduced by council member Sophie Swope during council’s May 23rd, 2023 regular meeting.
According to the resolution, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) recently adopted annual catch limits for the groundfish fisheries of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands without analyzing the environmental impacts of that decision in the context of the current environment.
The resolution states further that thousands of salmon are caught each year as bycatch, much of it discarded, by the pollock groundfish trawl fishery and similar fisheries authorized to fish the ocean under the harvest specifications adopted by NMFS.
The NMFS relies on an outdated environmental impact statement for harvest specifications (2007) and groundfish fisheries management plan (2004). This “may violate the U.S. government’s obligations under the federal National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).”
“The Bethel City Council determines that the City should join as amicus or intervenor in federal litigation to remedy NMFS reliance on outdated data to manage groundfish fisheries, including the pollock trawl fisheries, because the NMFS decision impacts the City financially, and its residents nutritionally, culturally, and economically,” states Res. 23-10.
The Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers have long been the City of Bethel’s and surrounding Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Region’s primary source of salmon and many of the City’s residents rely on salmon for subsistence harvesting, and salmon are of significant cultural and nutritional value. Bethel and other Kuskokwim residents rely on a healthy marine ecosystem to support their ways of life and economy.
And City sales tax on retail sales, ranging between six and 15 percent, constitutes a major source of revenue for the City. Subsistence and commercial fishing and its attendant sales for items such as supplies, guiding, fuel, and gear have historically contributed to the City’s sales tax base.
The Resolution was approved and passed by a vote of 5-0.
