ALFA and Alaska Trollers Association White Paper on Orca, Chinook, and Troll Fishery
Executive Summary
The following report prepared by the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association (ALFA) and the Alaska Trollers Association (ATA) addresses factors that affect the Southern Resident orca and responds to the campaign waged by the Wild Fish Conservancy, a Washington State organization, to link orca decline to the Southeast Alaska troll fishery. This report is based on extensive review of the research, data, and published literature.
Pollution, industrial toxins, urbanization, habitat loss and human-caused disturbance are the primary factors limiting the recovery of the Southern Resident orcas. Any one factor – acoustic disturbances from vessel traffic, the orca observing industry, chemical contaminants, or habitat harms specific to Chinook, chum and coho salmon – may in itself be a significant cause of nutritional stress, higher death rates or failed pregnancies. In short, Southern Resident orcas are threatened primarily because of their prolonged residence each year in Puget Sound and inland Southern British Columbia waters, all areas that are heavily used and contaminated by a growing human population.
ALFA and ATA are Southeast Alaska-based commercial fishing organizations that represent community-based, small commercial fishing businesses. Their members support science-based fisheries management and work to safeguard the health of the marine and freshwater environments that support salmon and other marine life. ALFA markets wild, sustainably caught Alaska seafood under the Alaskans Own label throughout Alaska and the U.S. to fund its Seafood Donation Program and Fishery Conservation Network. Alaskans Own is a leader in the sustainable seafood movement and has helped address food insecurity issues throughout Alaska and the Northwest, delivering more than 640,000 donated Alaska seafood meals in 2020-2021.
Chinook salmon produced by Southeast Alaska’s troll fishery are the culinary world's salmon of choice, prized for their color, high oil content, firm texture, and succulent flesh. Trollers fish with hook and line gear on the open ocean and target individual adult salmon when they are "bright," or at their peak quality. Careful individual handling helps maintain this quality. No fish is treated with more care from the time it leaves the water until it arrives on a plate.
Troll fishery harvests are managed under the Pacific Salmon Treaty using annual catch limits based on the aggregate abundance of mixed, multiple Chinook stocks that feed in the Gulf of Alaska. Treaty harvest regimes are abundance-based and designed to be sustainable. Each year fishery managers develop annual abundance indices that respond to changes in stock productivity to meet biologically based escapement goals and exploitation rate objectives.
Fishery managers have been successful at keeping catches below pre-season catch limits, consistent with Treaty obligations. Each year there is a post-season analysis of the fisheries and re-evaluation of harvest objectives. The Alaska troll fishery is one of the most carefully monitored fisheries in the world, with in season reporting and extensive dockside sampling. This management system ensures compliance with major seafood sustainability standards that require the harvest of sustainable fish stocks, minimal environmental impact on the marine ecosystem biodiversity, and an effective management system capable of responding quickly to environmental changes.
The Wild Fish Conservancy seeks to eliminate Southeast Alaska's troll fishery - a fleet of small fishing vessels operated by independent fishing families. Although there are many conservation groups concerned about orcas, the Wild Fish Conservancy acted alone to sue NMFS two years ago as part of its effort to eliminate the troll fishery. The court narrowly ruled NMFS needed to revise an incomplete plan to increase hatchery Chinook production that would provide additional prey for Southern Resident orcas.
The Wild Fish Conservancy is now misusing the court's decision in its campaign by targeting retailers, restaurants and seafood sustainability certifiers with misleading media materials that falsely fault a small and distant salmon fishery for the decline of the Southern Resident orca population. Their theory is that Southeast Alaska troll fishery catches of Chinook salmon are the primary cause of downward population trends for the Southern Resident orcas. This theory ignores a massive body of literature detailing the role of habitat degradation and human pressure on orca population viability. The theory also ignores decades of harvest and stock composition data establishing that the troll fishery's impact on coastwide Chinook abundance is small and more importantly, its impact on stocks of importance to the Southern Resident orcas is low.
Southern Resident orcas move through the Salish Sea (Puget Sound and southern British Columbia inland marine waters) and outer Washington coast during May through October in pursuit of Chinook, coho, and chum salmon. After October they move to the outer coasts of Washington and southern Vancouver Island and forage for Chinook and groundfish such as ling cod, dover sole and halibut. By March and April, they frequent areas near the mouth of the Columbia River, which is the peak return time for Columbia River Spring Chinook.
There is a massive body of research investigating the decline of the Southern Resident orca. The causes are simple but multiple, with current research focused on habitat loss, vessel traffic and contaminants. Salmon abundance has varied considerably over the past 40 years, and it is either a non-factor or the least significant factor affecting longterm trends for Southern Resident orca population.