Bristol Bay fishermen's settlement in the mail

By The Associated Press

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The fishermen lost a long trial in Anchorage early last year, but they still collected some $40 million from several companies that paid settlements to exit early from the case.

The money had been held in escrow in an Anchorage bank pending disbursement orders from Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski.

Most of the money went to attorneys for the fishermen, as well as to the processors and their lawyers, as reimbursement for legal work and costs.

The rest, just over $9.4 million, is going to about 4,700 current and former Bristol Bay gill-netters, said Parker Folse, a Seattle attorney for the fishermen.

Bristol Bay is the site of Alaska's biggest and most valuable salmon fishery. Tens of millions of sockeye salmon return to the bay's waters each summer, attracting thousands of commercial fishermen.

During a nearly four-month civil trial, the fishermen's lawyers argued that about a dozen large processing companies, along with Japanese seafood importers, had colluded to keep dockside prices for raw fish artificially low. The plaintiffs sought damages in excess of $1 billion.

Twelve jurors, however, cleared the processors of the price-fixing allegation after deliberating for about five hours.

Payout of the settlement money signals the conclusion of the case filed in 1995.

Nearly all the fishermen's checks were mailed Friday, Folse said. Fishermen will receive an amount that corresponds to the number of pounds of salmon they landed during the 1989-95 fishing seasons. Payment is based on a rate of about three-quarters of a cent per pound.

Individual payments range to nearly $10,000 but the average is about $2,000, Folse said.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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