62 



Jou rnal of Comiii.ao - .mlo. Washineioii. Monda y. Ju 



Ruling favors 

 Alaska over 

 Seattle-based 

 factory trawlers 



SEATTLE (AP) — Fishprocess- 

 ing plariLi en Alaska won a key 

 couri njling over SeaiUe-bascd fac- 

 lon- trawlers Friday as a federal 

 judge refused lo ovenum govem- 

 mcni aJlocaiions of Nonh Pacific 

 pollock and cod. 



The ruling by US Di^inci Judge 

 Barbara J Ro(hsi«in is ihe laiesi 

 bui not Ihe lasi round in a bacde 

 over a $1 billion annual groundfish 

 industry 



About three■qua^'^rs of the catch 

 li now processed aboard the huge 

 trawlers, sometimes called factory 

 ships Commerce Department al- 

 locauons announced earlier this 

 year would cut that share to about 

 55 percent over five years. 



According to department esti- 

 mates, the shift would cost at least 

 1 .000 jobs in Washington stale. 



On May 29. the American Fac- 

 tory Trawlers Association and two 

 other groups filed suit asking 

 Roihstein to overtuni the alloca- 

 tions without a tnal. 



The lawsuit said the shift ex- 

 ceeded the department's authonty 

 under the Magnuson Act, the mam 

 law rcgulaung fishing in U.S. 

 waters, and was adopted without 

 folloivmg procedure leciuirtd by 

 the Nauonal EnvirDnmenial Policy 

 Act ' 



Rothstein rejected those argu- 

 ments but added that "there are se- 

 rious quesuons involved in this 

 lawsuit which «rt not" covered in 

 the rubng and can be decided only 

 at inaJ 



Specifically, she said she had not 

 ruled on whether the department 

 should have sought pubbc com- 

 ment on a cost-benefit analysts thai 

 was issued March 5. the day after 

 the allocauons werr approved, or 

 the assocLaix)n s claim that a sup- 

 plemental environmental impact 

 statement containing the analysis 



(ConiinvKtl on Page 9, Column 1) 



Fishing 



(CoMioa^ ffom V,ux tliiri 



wasadcguHe. 



Sen. Ted Stevens. R-Aliska. is- 

 sued a staieaeni praising the ruling 

 as "a major tnumph for Alaska's 

 fishenes." 



The niSmg "upheld the govern- 

 ment's ikcissn acknowledging the 

 needs of Alaska's fishamen and 

 coastal cDoimunmcs," said Rep. 

 Don Youac R-Alaska. 



Bruce BA of the uawkn associ- 

 auon said ihe ruling "only ad- 

 dressed a my limiied number of 

 issues tot were inchided in our 

 complaiM. This is round one. It's 

 only raorf one." 



Sinc£ Rothstein largely upheld 

 the way in which procedures were 

 folk>«'ed under the environmental 

 law, the focus will shift lo social 

 and ecoBomic effects under the 

 Magnusoo Act, Buls said. 



Also ■iresolved arc contentions 

 that the allocation unconstitution- 

 ally faroed Alaska ports over 

 those ui Washington sale and that 

 membcn of the panel that recom- 

 mended the change were improp- 

 erly appotnied, he said- 



The osoe has provoked heated 

 battles between the largely Demo- 

 crauc Washington stale congressio- 

 nal dek^auon and the all-Republi- 

 can Alaska conungem. 



Led by House Speaker Tom 

 Foley. Washington's representa- 

 tives and senators wrote then-Com- 

 neice Secretary Roben Mosbacher 

 ui Ociotcr lo ask that the allocation 

 issue be Rnimed lo Ihe North Pa- 

 cific Fishery Managetneni Council 

 (or funhcT review. 



They oKd questiooi raised by 

 Ihe NaioMi Manne Fisheries Ser- 

 vKe iboa Ihe council's recom- 

 mended changes in groundTish al- 

 loUDcnts, Bctuding a claim of inad- 

 equaie csvwTXunenial analysts. 



They alio noted that Alaska 

 dominaa the council with six of 

 dK II vaiuw roemben. There are 

 Ihree boai Washingun, one from 

 Oreion and one frooi Ibe federal 

 £iivmifnm 



In Jaaiary. (he tnwiers' repre- 

 tenuuvc in Washuigun. DC, Jim 

 GiUnorc said it was ironic that 

 Bush was in Japan on a mission lo 

 boost Aaencan business while one 

 of his csnpaign adviscrx, Charles 

 R. Black Jr., was lobbying for Japa- 

 nese inieresis ui the allocation bat- 

 tle by itpesenting PaciTc Seafood 

 Proceoon Associautn. 



Aboa 70 percent d the Alaska 

 shore -based processoci that stand u> 

 beneCl from the ruling are con- 

 trolled Inr (WD Japanese companies. 

 h4ippan Suisan and Taiyo Fisheries, 

 wtuJe tte irtwteri fleet is 20 lo 30 

 pmeti foreign owned. Gilmore 

 said. -^' - - . -• 



Black aid (he issue was employ- 

 mem raikcr (han foreign con(rol 

 and (hai t victory for the trawlers 

 would BUn "a net loa of Ameri- 

 can jote." 



Jouiiog Ihe tiawlen association 

 in the towsuit were American In- 

 dependent Fishermen, a Washing- 

 ton siaic-based group of owners of 

 small fishing vessels, and Royal 

 Seafoods Inc. of Seattle, which 

 owns 1 pcocessmg plant in Seattle 

 and seioral trawlers. 



Pacific S^^ood and 1 1 other par- 

 lies joaed on Ihe side of Com- 

 merce Secretary Barbara R 

 Franklin and John A. Knauss. un- 

 dersecreury of cooimerce for 

 oceans and atmosphere, named as 

 defendants in the lawsuit 



