Opinion ID: 3037886
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: introduction

Text: The events at issue in this dispute unfolded in early 2005 against a complicated regulatory backdrop. We first describe 7390 OREGON TROLLERS v. GUTIERREZ in general terms the regulation of Pacific fisheries under the Magnuson Act. We then turn to the specific facts of this case.

Congress passed the Magnuson Act in 1976 in order “to take immediate action to conserve and manage the fishery resources found off the coasts of the United States . . . .” 16 U.S.C. § 1801(b)(1). The statute established eight Regional Fishery Management Councils, including the Pacific Fishery Management Council (“PFMC” or “the Council”). Id. § 1852(a)(1)(F). The councils, composed of federal and state officials as well as private experts appointed by the NMFS, draft “fishery management plans” (“FMPs”), id. § 1852(h)(1), that are designed to “achieve and maintain, on a continuing basis, the optimum yield from each fishery[.]” Id. § 1801(b)(4). The councils also propose regulations implementing these FMPs to the Secretary of Commerce. Id. § 1853(c). Acting through the NMFS, the Secretary reviews FMPs and their implementing regulations for consistency with the Magnuson Act, solicits public comment, and publishes final regulations in the Federal Register. Id. § 1854(a)(1)(B), (b)(1).
In 1977, the NMFS approved the Pacific Coast Salmon Plan (“Pacific Plan”), an FMP for the Pacific salmon fisheries. See Pacific Plan 1 (revised Sept. 2003), available at http://www.pcouncil.org/salmon/salfmp.html.1 From 1978 through 1983, the Council recommended annual amendments to the Pacific Plan based on yearly “salmon abundance estimates and social and economic factors affecting the fish- 1 All PFMC documents we refer to are available at the Council’s website, http://www.pcouncil.org. OREGON TROLLERS v. GUTIERREZ 7391 eries.” 49 Fed. Reg. 43679, 43679 (Oct. 31, 1984). This process, which required notice-and-comment and other procedures, proved “too cumbersome to allow for timely implementation of the annual regulations and efficient fishery management.” Pacific Plan at 1. In 1984, the Council therefore proposed a “comprehensive framework amendment” to the NMFS. Pacific Plan at 1. The 1984 amendment established consistent terms for salmon regulation that would apply every year, and it provided a “mechanism for making preseason and inseason adjustments in the regulations without annual amendments to the FMP.” 49 Fed. Reg. at 43679. Shortly thereafter, the NMFS approved the amended Pacific Plan and promulgated implementing regulations, now codified at 50 C.F.R. §§ 660.401-411. The amended Pacific Plan includes fixed measures, which can only be changed through formal rulemaking, and allows for flexible measures, which change from year-to-year based on fishery conservation and management needs. See Nw. Envtl. Def. Ctr. v. Gordon, 849 F.2d 1241, 1243 (9th Cir. 1988). “Fixed measures” include “the procedures and schedules for making preseason and inseason adjustments to the regulations.” “Flexible measures” include “determinations of the annual allowable levels of ocean harvests . . . .” 49 Fed. Reg. 32414, 32414-15 (Aug. 14, 1984) (proposed rule). One of the most important features of the Pacific Plan’s management of Klamath chinook is its “spawning escapement goal.” “For natural stocks, the escapement goal is defined as the number of spawning adults needed to produce the maximum number of juvenile salmon that, after incubation and freshwater rearing, will out-migrate to the sea . . . . For hatchery stocks, the escapement goal is that number of spawners needed to meet a hatchery’s agreed-upon artificial production plan.” United States v. Washington, 774 F.2d 1470, 1473 n.2 (9th Cir. 1985). The NMFS first adopted a spawning escapement goal for the Klamath chinook in 1985. It required the agency to design annual management measures such that, by 7392 OREGON TROLLERS v. GUTIERREZ 1998, 115,000 Klamath chinook, including 97,000 natural spawners, would escape to spawn. See 50 Fed. Reg. 812, 813 (Jan. 7, 1985). In December 1988, the Council, “[f]aced with declining run sizes,” proposed an amendment to the Pacific Plan that would set the escapement goal at “35 percent of the potential adults from each brood of natural spawners, but no fewer than 35,000 naturally spawning adults in any given year.” Hatchery spawners would not count toward this goal. The NMFS adopted this amendment to the Pacific Plan and implemented it in a regulation promulgated on May 4, 1989. The regulation has remained in effect, with minor adjustments, since then. See 54 Fed. Reg. 19185, 19194 (May 4, 1989); 54 Fed. Reg. 19798, 19800 (May 8, 1989) (lowering the percentage to 3334%).
The process for setting the “flexible” annual management measures for Pacific salmon fisheries begins in January, when the Council releases a report describing abundance levels for the previous year’s salmon stocks. See PFMC, Council Operating Procedure: Preseason Mgmt. Process (rev. Mar. 11, 2005). In February, the Council drafts Preseason Report I, which makes “stock abundance forecasts and harvest and escapement estimates [for the coming season] when recent regulatory regimes are projected on current year abundance.” Id. In early March, the Council meets in public to discuss various management options for the coming season in that year. It then releases Preseason Report II, which proposes “not more than three alternative regulatory options” to meet “FMP management objectives.” Id. The Council holds public meetings on the proposed salmon management options in late March. After receiving comments from the public, the Council chooses from among the options at its early April meeting. Most of that meeting is open to the public. See Pacific Plan at 9-1. The Council then forwards its proposed management OREGON TROLLERS v. GUTIERREZ 7393 measures to the NMFS for final approval. Annual management measures for the Pacific salmon fisheries are published in final form in the Federal Register in early May.
Klamath River salmon have suffered dramatically in recent years. In the spring of 2002, thousands of juvenile salmon died in the river before reaching the ocean. That fall, 34,000 mature chinook, coho, and steelhead died in the river’s lower 20 miles as they tried to swim upstream. The proliferation of a salmon parasite, exacerbated by low water levels caused by drought and irrigation use, may have caused this mass fish kill. See U.S. Fish & Wildlife Serv., Klamath River Fish DieOff September 2002: Causative Factors of Mortality, Exec. Summary at ii (Nov. 2003), available at http://www.fws.gov/ sacramento/ea. Problems continued in 2004 and 2005. In its Review of 2004 Ocean Salmon Fisheries, published in early 2005 (“2004 Review”), the Council reported that the Klamath River run after the 2004 fishing season consisted of 79,000 returning adult chinook, or about 20,000 fewer than its preseason estimate. Of these, only 24,300 were natural spawners. 2004 Review at 35. Predictions for the 2005 postseason run, when juvenile salmon that had survived the 2002 die-off would return to spawn, were even more dire. Preseason Report I, released in February 2005, concluded that “a repeat of [the 2004 management measures] would be expected to result in fewer than 35,000 natural area adult spawners, and thus, fail to meet the minimum spawner requirement.” 2005 Preseason Report I at 23. The Council met from March 6 to 11, 2005, to develop proposed options for annual management measures under the Pacific Plan. These proposals appeared in Preseason Report II. Each proposal recommended drastically restricted fishing in the Klamath Management Zone. 7394 OREGON TROLLERS v. GUTIERREZ After public hearings in late March, the Council met in early April to adopt its final 2005 recommendations. On the table was a proposal to lower the 35,000 natural spawner escapement floor for Klamath chinook by 3,000 fish in order to spare fishermen a highly restricted season. The proposal was seriously considered by the Council. One councilmember observed that “[m]anaging below the floor could result in overfishing and would require [an] emergency rule.” Another insisted that “the risk of reducing the escapement by 3,000 fish was minimal,” while a third stated that, in his view, the risk “was worth the potential economic benefit to the fisheries.” A fourth councilmember responded that “the management doctrine for the Klamath system was based on the Council’s Salmon FMP.” “[I]f the Council moved away from its mandates,” he argued, “it would contribute to the problems in the Klamath system, which was not in the long-term interest of the Council and the fishermen.” The motion to recommend a lowered escapement floor for Klamath chinook natural spawners from the 35,000 number established in 1989 failed by a vote of 7 to 7. The Council formally proposed its 2005 management measures in Preseason Report III, released shortly after the April meeting. The report acknowledged that its recommended “commercial fishery measures” for the Klamath Management Zone “are substantially more restrictive than in 2004.” 2005 Preseason Report III at 2. For example, commercial fishing in the Oregon portion of the Klamath Management Zone would be closed for all of May, June, July, and August. Id. at 3. The Report also acknowledged that recommended “recreational fishery measures are somewhat more restrictive than in 2004.” Id. The Council forwarded its proposed management measures to the NMFS. An April 22 NMFS memorandum observed that “during the process of developing final management recommendations for 2005 there was controversy relating to achievement of the Klamath River fall Chinook escapement OREGON TROLLERS v. GUTIERREZ 7395 floor of 35,000 . . . .” It noted that some commercial fishermen had appeared at the April Council meeting to propose that it “consider increasing harvest beyond what was developed” in Preseason Report II. The memorandum recognized that approval of this proposal would have resulted in returning Klamath River chinook natural spawners below the 35,000 fish floor, and stated that “an emergency rule would have been required” to allow for this deviation from the 1989 regulation amending the Pacific Plan. Another NMFS memorandum observed that the restricted season recommended by the Council would yield an expected $33.7 million in income for Pacific salmon fisheries, “down 28% from the 2004 value of $46.8 million, and 74% below the 1976-1990 average.” Declaring that projected shortfalls in numbers of returning salmon made “certain reductions” necessary “in order to achieve the conservation objective of 35,000 natural Klamath River fall Chinook adult spawners,” the NMFS adopted the Council’s recommendations without change in an action published in the Federal Register on May 4, 2005. 70 Fed. Reg. 23054, 23055 (May 4, 2005). The NMFS did not open a public comment period before publishing its action. Rather, it invoked the Administrative Procedure Act’s (“APA”) “good cause” exception based on the need to get the action finalized before opening of the fishing season. See 5 U.S.C. § 553(b)(B). There is little doubt that the restricted salmon fishing season under the 2005 management measures imposed significant hardship on Pacific fishing communities. One estimate pegged the loss caused to commercial fishermen and related businesses at $40 million. See Stacy Finz & Glen Martin, Imagine a Year Without Local Salmon, S.F. Chron., Mar. 3, 2006, at A1. Several of the individual plaintiffs in this suit attested to the threats the 2005 management measures posed to their livelihoods. 7396 OREGON TROLLERS v. GUTIERREZ
Plaintiffs commenced this suit within 30 days of the publication of the 2005 management measures in the Federal Register. Their suit has two parts. First, and most important, they object to the 1989 regulation establishing the 35,000 natural spawner escapement floor for Klamath chinook, under which the 2005 action was taken. Second, they object to the 2005 action on several bases that are independent of the 1989 regulation. The Hoopa Valley and Yurok Tribes, whose reservations straddle the Klamath River and its tributaries, intervened in support of the NMFS. In a thorough and carefully reasoned opinion, the district court granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment. See generally Oregon Trollers Ass’n v. Gutierrez, Civ. No. 05-6165, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34084 (D. Or. Sept. 8, 2005). The court concluded that plaintiffs’ attacks on the 1989 regulation establishing the 35,000 natural spawner escapement floor were barred by the 30-day limitations period of the Magnuson Act. See 16 U.S.C. § 1855(f)(1). In the alternative, the district court rejected plaintiffs’ claims on the merits, holding that the escapement floor reflected “an eminently reasonable consideration when managing a fishery to maintain its long-term viability.” 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34084, at . The district court also upheld the 2005 management measures against plaintiffs’ other objections. On appeal, plaintiffs challenge every aspect of the district court’s decision. We disagree with the district court’s conclusion that the plaintiffs’ attack on the 1989 regulation is barred by the thirty-day statute of limitations contained in 16 U.S.C. § 1855(f)(1). However, we agree with the district court on the merits. We therefore affirm.