Alaskan Fishing Limits Will Be Quick Challenge for Bush

A truce in a battle over fish sticks and sea lions along a remote Alaskan archipelago--one of President Clinton’s last environmental clashes--will soon turn into one of the first environmental challenges facing President-elect George W. Bush.

Next month, on the day Bush is sworn in, the federal government will begin imposing emergency regulations on Alaska’s lucrative fisheries in order to protect endangered sea lions. The prospect of those rules triggered a fiery dispute between the Clinton administration and the 106th Congress that for a time threatened to hold up the federal budget in the final days of their reign.

On Friday afternoon, the White House and Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) agreed that restrictions on the Alaskan fisheries will be imposed on Jan. 20, but they can be modified beginning March 15, after the prime fishing season has ended. After that, the new Commerce secretary--yet to be nominated by Bush--will have to consider how to balance the demands of the Endangered Species Act against the economic needs of Alaskans.

At stake is the largest fishery in the United States--worth more than $1 billion a year--as well as the health of one of the richest marine ecosystems on Earth. Coastal villages in Alaska rely on fishing for their economic survival, just as Steller sea lions depend on the same fish for their own survival.

The dispute is an example of the sort of environmental issues that will confront Bush early in his term of office. Conservatives in Congress already are calling for the president-elect to ease environmental rules. Democrats, meanwhile, note that Republican efforts to roll back environmental laws in 1994--after they regained control of Congress--resulted in a major public backlash. If Bush appears to be attacking the environment, Democrats believe they will have a ready opening for political attack.

The fisheries dispute, waged for about a decade, heated up on Dec. 1 when the National Marine Fisheries Service announced it would impose emergency rules in January that restrict commercial fishing of pollock, cod and mackerel around the Aleutian Islands. More than a million tons of the fish are harvested every year, and most wind up in American freezers and fast-food restaurants as fish sticks and filets.

Although the fish themselves remain plentiful around Alaska, the sea lions--which consume large quantities of the fish around the Aleutians--are in trouble. Their populations have plummeted 80%, and the federal agency has concluded that the only way to save them from extinction is to restrict the fisheries to provide the sea lions with more food.

With a bulky build and boxy head, the Stellers are the largest of all sea lions, and the Aleutian Islands have always been their habitat.

Five large environmental groups forced the Clinton administration to crack down on the Alaskan fishing industry by suing the federal government for failing to enforce the Endangered Species Act. In August, the groups won a court order that shut down trawling in areas deemed critical to the sea lions until the fisheries service came up with a new plan.

Environmentalists say that they are relieved that the fishery restrictions are now written into law and that Congress did not waive the Endangered Species Act. But they remain concerned about the future--and the new administration.

Beth Stewart, who as natural resources director represents fishing villages in the Aleutians East Borough, said that the congressional action is complex and that fishermen are unsure what effect the compromise will have on the coming fishing season.

She said, however, that Alaskan communities and fishermen are hopeful that the new administration will revisit the science behind the restrictions. As part of the terms of the new budget bill, a National Academy of Sciences panel will study whether fishing is in fact jeopardizing the sea lions.

Under Bush, “we think the [fisheries] agency can get back to doing science instead of trying to accommodate Greenpeace,” she said.

Along Alaska’s coast, the new restrictions could have a devastating effect on fishermen and their families, as well as on the economies of entire villages.

The $1.2-billion cod, pollock and mackerel industry could lose as much as $200 million a year, the marine fisheries service estimates. Stevens said the effects would ripple throughout Alaska’s economy.

Native Alaskan fishermen like Dwain Foster Sr. would feel the brunt of the economic blow.

Every January, Foster and his two sons head out to sea, trawling the icy waters of the Gulf of Alaska. The seas can be treacherous, the work exhausting. But cod and pollock are so bountiful that in a single winter day, the Fosters can return with 100,000 pounds of fish and earn enough money in a month to pay their family bills for much of the year.

Under the new restrictions, Foster will face a life-altering decision: Does he jeopardize his own life--and the lives of his sons--by moving his boat far out to sea, where fishing still will now be legal? Or does he go out of business, and perhaps leave the Aleutian Islands village where his family has fished for four generations?

In fishing communities near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula, people have been spending sleepless nights, knowing they cannot pay their mortgages and fuel bills if they can’t fish this winter.

“My father did it. My grandfather did it. I don’t know how to do anything else,” said Foster, who has been fishing out of Sand Point for 40 of his 45 years. “We’re sitting here trying to figure out what to do.”

Under the new rules, fishing will be prohibited within 20 miles of two-thirds of the rookeries where sea lions breed and raise their pups. That encompasses most of the Aleutian Islands, the prime fishing spots for cod and pollock.

Some of the 1,300 vessels that fish the region are industrial-size trawlers that sail in from ports as far away as Portland, Ore., and Seattle. They can readily move farther offshore in search of legal fishing grounds, although their haul would probably be reduced.

But smaller boats--including 58-foot trawlers such as Foster’s--would be unable to navigate 20 miles offshore in Aleutian winters. At sea, a small trawler can ice up in less than an hour, and 100-mph storms can blow in with little warning.

“With a boat like ours, it would be like playing Russian roulette,” said Tom Manos, who operates a small trawler out of Sand Point. “I think it’s just a matter of time before somebody dies.”

Environmental groups have spent a decade pushing for limits on Alaska’s ground-fish industry, particularly the factory trawlers.

“Industrial fishing destroys marine habitat and removes vast amounts of fish that are essential to the health of the entire ecosystem,” said Phil Kline of the American Oceans Campaign, one of the groups that sued the fisheries agency.

But the small fishermen say they are unfairly being caught in a cross-fire between environmentalists and the trawling companies.

“I don’t want to see any species go extinct because of me,” Manos said. “But to me, this is a big science experiment. I have trouble believing that taking us out of the equation will really help the sea lions.

“The environmentalists were shooting at the factory boats. But they missed, and the only ones they hit were us.”

Cod and pollock are the most abundant fish in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. But it’s the location of the trawling that seems to jeopardize the sea lions.

More than half of the harvest--about 600,000 tons of cod, pollock and mackerel per year--is taken from around the Aleutian Islands rookeries and other areas deemed critical habitat for sea lions.

The sea lions might have too little to eat during critical nursing and weaning times in the winter, when the fishing season is at its peak and the young ones are most vulnerable. Biologists at the marine fisheries service say cod and pollock fishing is “a significant factor” in the sea lion decline and is “likely to jeopardize the existence” of the species. When such a ruling is made, the agency is required under the Endangered Species Act to take action.

Not just an economy, but a whole culture, is at stake. Communities such as Sand Point and King Cove have been reliant on fishing for almost two centuries. Schools, roads and other public services in the eastern Aleutians are funded by a tax on raw fish. Kodiak and Seward are also dependent on fishing and fish-processing plants.

The deal struck Friday between Stevens and the White House includes $30 million in economic disaster relief for the Alaskan communities. It also says the Commerce secretary should try to ensure that the income of fishermen and processors will remain at 1999 levels and that he cannot reduce the allowable catch by more than 10%.

Nonetheless, fishermen are deeply worried. “Coastal Alaska is about to go into a critical state,” said Virginia Adams, who fishes for cod out of Kodiak. “Our families, most of us, don’t even know what we’re going to do. There’s tremendous anxiety and frustration. It’s a very scary time for all of us.”