Alaska senator drops disputed effort to protect fishing rights

By Craig Welch
Seattle Times staff reporter

	R. STONE / NOAA FISHERIES A large basket starfish, center, nestles in a kaleidoscope of coral and sponges that provide cover and food for sea life in Alaska's Aleutians Islands.
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Alaska's senior U.S. senator this week backed off a controversial move that would have blocked any effort to set aside newly discovered coral beds as well as broad swaths of the North Pacific from potentially destructive types of commercial fishing.

Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, had attached a legislative rider to an essential spending bill that would have prevented federal fisheries managers from spending money to protect any troubled undersea environments deemed necessary for the survival of commercial fish stocks — a move that outraged ocean-conservation groups.

"It was initially inserted as a stopgap measure," Stevens' spokeswoman Courtney Schikora said yesterday. "It's no longer necessary."

Stevens has said he attached the rider out of fear that environmentalists would sue to make sure large areas of the Bering Sea or the Aleutian Islands were off-limits to fishing.

But last month, the council that oversees fishing in the North Pacific determined there was no reason to designate particular habitat types — such as cold-water coral gardens — as essential to maintaining fish stocks.

While some coral beds may need to be preserved, there's no evidence to suggest that fishing is damaging the larger ecosystem enough to require greater restrictions, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council ruled.

Environmentalists, though still troubled by the council's decision, were relieved by Stevens' response.

"That's fantastic," said Jon Warrenchuk, marine-conservation coordinator for the group Oceana. He said some scientists believe the data used to suggest fishing wasn't jeopardizing ocean-floor habitat were incomplete, and said the council ultimately could rethink its decision.

The Senate wrapped up business this week with many of its spending bills still unresolved.

But several other controversial Stevens riders — including one that would let the existing crab-boat fleet along with a handful of Seattle-based fish processors take over 90 percent of Alaska's king-crab harvest — will still be in play when the House considers the bills early next month.

The habitat issue this fall worked its way to the center of a growing debate over the impact of commercial fishing on creatures that make their home on Alaska's North Pacific sea floor.

After scientists discovered coral and sponge beds in parts of Alaska, environmentalists increasingly complained that bottom trawling — involving fishing nets that drag bottom — were destroying these living gardens, which could have long-term consequences for the marine environment.

The fishing industry, meanwhile — backed by federal managers and an industry-dominated council that regulates fishing — said that although trawling can be destructive, it has been confined to such a small part of the vast North Pacific that any damage was localized and not likely to affect the survival of fish.

And, fishing-industry officials said, federal managers already were in the process of designating a handful of geographically distinct "areas of particular concern" — such as some special coral gardens — as areas worth protecting. That should be enough, they said.

"Their highest priority for protection is corals, particularly the long-lived corals in parts of the Aleutians," said John Gauvin, an industry consultant. "They're looking at specific areas that appear to be of high economic importance and that appear vulnerable."

Environmentalist have maintained that just protecting these isolated areas is not what was meant by a 1996 law that required the protection of essential fish habitat.

"They're talking about a real site-specific approach to protecting small areas," said Warrenchuk, with Oceana. "That doesn't allow for the habitat-wide management measures we need."

Craig Welch: 206-464-2093 or cwelch@seattletimes.com

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