Opinion ID: 3133196
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The preliminary injunction hearing and ruling

Text: The superior court held a preliminary injunction hearing on July 30. CIFF clarified that it was seeking an injunction in part to require the Commissioner to exercise her “discretion and expand the number of hours available to [the set net] fishery,” and in part to “compel[] the Department to adhere to its own regulations.” An area management biologist for the Department’s commercial fisheries division testified. When asked why the drift net fishery remained open if the Department was attempting to protect the late-run Kenai River kings, the biologist responded that the Department made the “discretionary management” decision not to close that fishery because “the drifters harvest far fewer, about one[-]tenth of the king salmon that the . . . setnet fishery harvests, [and] we’re using [the drift netters] as a tool to control sockeye escapements while minimizing the harvest of king salmon.” Recalling a Board meeting after the challenging 2012 fishing year, the biologist testified that although the Board considered many proposed changes to its management plans, it decided not to change the plans and instead “told the Department: Go out and do your job. Take the management plans that we have crafted and we’ll trust your discretionary use of . . . emergency order authority and following the plans as they’re written . . . .” When asked whether the Department prioritized exceeding minimum escapement goals over not exceeding maximum ones, the biologist replied that the Department placed a “higher priority” on exceeding a minimum escapement goal, but that it also tried not to exceed maximum escapement goals by too much. CIFF presented the telephonic testimony of a retired area management biologist. The retired biologist expressed his opinion that in 2012 the Department had “basically put the priority on king salmon management and . . . let the dice roll or -9- 7056 whatever on sockeye management.” He believed that in 2013 the Department also “put the priority on king salmon conservation” while risking over-escaping sockeye populations. According to the retired biologist, both over-escapement and underescapement are detrimental to the sustained yield of a stock, but over-escapement could reduce future yield anywhere from 10% to 20%. On cross-examination, however, the retired biologist admitted that he had “over-escaped” the Kasilof River sockeye run “numerous times” when it was under his management. The Department’s director of commercial fisheries also testified; like the Department’s current biologist, he stated that he came away from the 2012 Board meeting with a sense that the Board made no changes to its management plans because it trusted the Department to use its discretionary authority appropriately. The director also explained that the Department’s discretionary authority existed to deal with the fact that “Mother Nature throws curves at us every year, . . . be it run timing, run strength, size of fish, [or] vulnerability to gear.” He testified that the Department prioritized meeting the lower range of an escapement goal over exceeding the upper range because not meeting an escapement goal was riskier than exceeding one. “[Y]ou have to be real cautious about counting on something happening at the end of the season,” the director said, “because if you’re wrong, there is no room to catch back up. There’s no . . . fish run left. And so that’s why you see us being conservative at this point.” A Department scientist also testified. Like the Department’s other two witnesses he explained that it was riskier to fall short of an escapement range than to exceed one because the projected sustained yield declines more drastically when the lower goal is not met. He testified that the upper escapement goal could better tolerate an excess of salmon “before the effects of too many spawners on the spawning ground becomes an issue with reducing yield.” -10- 7056 The day after the hearing the superior court issued an order denying CIFF’s request for a preliminary injunction. The court found that because CIFF’s claim involved only economic harm, the harm was not irreparable. The court then reasoned that the Department’s interests would not be adequately protected if the set net fishery were reopened because “serious harm to the health” of the late-run Kenai River kings could result, and this harm would thwart the Department’s “constitutional duty to manage” fish stocks consistent with sustained yield. The superior court therefore declined to apply the balance-of-hardships test and instead analyzed whether CIFF had demonstrated “a clear showing of probable success on the merits.” The court concluded that CIFF had not, because the additional 51 discretionary fishing hours per week that CIFF wanted the Commissioner to provide were just that — discretionary. The court also concluded that the Commissioner’s inseason management decisions did not reallocate salmon stocks in contravention of the various management plans, all of which granted the Commissioner considerable discretion. Crediting the Department employees’ testimony, the court found that “the risk of an underescapement is much more likely to have a detrimental long-term impact on the Kenai River king salmon than the negative impact caused by an overescapement of Kasilof River sockeye salmon.” The court refused to second-guess the Commissioner’s discretionary use of her emergency authority, concluding that an injunction requiring the Department to comply with the applicable regulations “would serve no effective purpose” and that an injunction mandating additional set net fishing times “would be unworkable and unreasonable in the present circumstances.”