Attorneys for the Alaska Trollers Association, the state of Alaska and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had their day in court on Thursday (July 18), over a decision last year by a federal judge to close the king salmon troll fishery in Southeast Alaska. 

The case involves a lawsuit brought by the Washington state environmental group Wild Fish Conservancy, which sued NOAA back in 2020 over the impact of the king salmon harvest in Southeast on a dwindling number of orca whales in Puget Sound.

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judges Mark Bennett, Anthony Johnstone and Milan Smith Jr. sounded sympathetic to the fate of the fishery, which was granted a stay last year to remain open for the summer salmon season, reported public radio station KFSK, in Petersburg, Alaska. 

"There is a lot of uncertainty around everything here in terms of, is it going to help the whales," Bennett said. "All we know for sure is that closing some of the fisheries is absolutely going to cause harm to inhabitants of Alaska, and their various subsistence and cultural practices."

There is no timeline for the panel to issue a ruling in the case. However, NOAA is in the process of rewriting its biological opinions and environmental impact statements regarding the fishery, which is at the center of the lawsuit, and plans to publish those new rules in November of this year.