'Loophole' Lets Out-of-Staters Fish Without Restrictions, Alaskans Claim
WASHINGTON (CN) - Fishermen in Alaska claim the federal government abandoned control of the Cook Inlet salmon fishery and handed it over to the state, creating a "jurisdictional loophole" that allows unpermitted, out-of-state boats to fish for salmon without restriction.
"Cook Inlet salmon fisheries have been, and are, declining in Cook Inlet," the groups state. "The primary reason for that decline has been management failures by the State of Alaska to use the science-based, transparent procedures contemplated in the MSA. The decision to formally remove Cook Inlet from the FMP, and turn over all management to the State of Alaska, ensures that this trend will continue and that the optimum yield goals of the MSA will never be realized."
In addition, removing Cook Inlet from the salmon FMP "creates a jurisdictional loophole, whereby vessels not registered in the state of Alaska may fish for salmon in the federal waters of Cook Inlet without a permit and without time or gear restrictions to the detriment of valid permit holders such as Plaintiffs' members," the complaint states.
link http://www.cnsenvironmentallaw.com/2013/06/19/1944.htm
