The Spot Prawn Fishery: A Status Report - Earth Economics

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The Spot Prawn Fishery: A Status Report Fisheries Commission (NWIFC) represents 20 treaty Tribes and has followed all stages of the Rafeedie case. The mission of the NWIFC is to assist “Treaty Indian Tribes in conducting biologically sound fisheries and providing a unified voice on fisheries management issues” (NWIFC 2000, www.nwifc.wa.gov). Approximately 16 Washington Tribes have a stated interest in the spot prawn fishery (David Fyfe, NWIFC. Pers. comm., June 2001). Since Rafeedie, the Tribes “have a fundamental government duty to conserve and protect their treaty-reserved resources, while providing tribal harvest opportunity” (NWIFC 2000: p.4). Ensuring the development of sound data-management systems for catch reporting, research and assess-ment programs, and monitoring and enforce-ment regimes is a common goal of all Tribal shellfish management systems. The need to regulate and monitor the in-season fishery in order to ensure conservation of the resource and maintain a 50:50 allocation between Tribal and non-Tribal interests is specific to Tribal management. The development of “in-season population assess-ment methodologies is one of the goals of Tribal management systems and will require increased data collection and research” (NWIFC 2000: p. 5). The Offshore Spot Prawn Fishery The offshore, directed fishery for spot prawns began in approximately 1992, when two boats based in Westport, Washington actively targeted spot prawns with pot gear. Prior to this time, spot prawns were a bycatch species in the ocean pink shrimp and groundfish trawl fisheries. Bycatch or incidental catch declined sharply when WDFW instituted regulations that required a larger mesh size (WDFW 2001c). In the early developmental stages of the spot prawn fishery, only a few regulations were in place. These included: 1) use of cotton For thousands of years, shellfish has been a vital food source for Washington’s Tribes, second only to salmon. Shellfish are equally important today for economic as well as subsistence and ceremonial purposes. Similar to salmon resources,Tribal rights to harvest shellfish are guaranteed in a series of treaties signed with representatives of the U.S. government in the 1850s. THE RAFEEDIE DECISION “The right of taking of fish at usual and accustomed grounds and stations is further secured to said Indians, in common with all citizens of the United States; and erecting temporary houses for the purposes of curing; together with the privilege of hunting and gathering roots and berries on open and unclaimed lands. Provided, however, that they take no shellfish from any beds staked or cultivated by citizens” (Treaty of Point No Point, Jan. 26, 1855, cited in Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission Comprehensive Tribal Shellfish Management. 2000. www.nwifc.wa.gov/ ctnrm/2000_shellfish.htm). Shellfish harvests were dominated by the Tribes until well into the 1920s, but as settlement spread and available land was purchased, the Tribes were slowly pushed out of traditional fishing and harvesting grounds. Efforts to restore and uphold treaty rights began with the case U.S. v. Winans, in which the Supreme Court ruled that where treaties reserve Tribal rights to fish at “usual and accustomed fishing grounds, the State can not preclude access to those places” (NWIFC 2000: p. 2). In 1970, the U.S. government filed a case on behalf of western Washington fishing Tribes against the State of Washington. In 1974,“The Boldt Decision” ruled that the Tribes had a reserved right to half of the harvestable salmon and steelhead in western Washington. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld this decision in 1979. Since then, the Tribes and Washington State have been working to develop fishery management systems that ensure opportunities for both Tribal and non-Tribal fishers. Despite these efforts, the Tribes felt obliged to file suit in Federal Court to protect their treaty shellfish harvest rights.The issue went to trial in 1994.This case followed the case law laid out in U.S. v. Washington (“The Boldt Decision”). Judge Rafeedie ruled that “the treaties ‘in common’ language meant that the tribes had reserved harvest rights. The tribes reserved the right to harvest up to half of all shellfish from all of the usual and accustomed places, except those ‘staked or cultivated’ by citizens.” Rafeedie stated,“A treaty is not a grant of rights to the Indians, but a grant of rights from them” (NWIFC 2000: p. 3). All parties to the case have appealed various parts of Rafeedie’s ruling. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard these arguments in 1997 and upheld Rafeedie’s major rulings. Portions of the implementation plan were changed. Appeals for a re-hearing from the State of Washington and private property owners were denied.The Tribes’ appeal to change Rafeedie’s ruling that prevents the harvest of natural clams beneath growers’ cultivated oyster beds was also denied.The decision became final in 1999, when the U.S. Supreme Court denied appeals of lower court rulings.The Tribes have now “moved past the litigation and into co-management of their treaty resources with the State of Washington” (NWIFC 2000: p.3). 27
The Spot Prawn Fishery: A Status Report “rot away” cord in pot gear; 2) a limited trawl season of April 1 through October 31; 3) keeping and submission of logbooks to WDFW. The bulk of the fishery takes place an average of 25–30 miles offshore, and to date there has been no Tribal participation in the fishery. In 1992, approximately 2,480 pounds of spot prawns were landed off Westport in the Grays Canyon area. In 1993, four pot vessels actively targeted spot prawns and caught a total of 13,555 pounds. An Oregon-based trawler entered the fishery in 1994 and harvested approximately two-thirds of the annual catch limit of 65,854 pounds. No landings were recorded in 1995. The WDFW believes that this is because fishers pursued more lucrative opportunities, particularly for albacore. In 1996, four pot boats re-entered the fishery and landed 22,389 pounds of spot prawns. In addition, approximately 130 pounds of spot prawns were reported as incidental trawl catch. The offshore fishery changed dramatically in 1997, when five trawl boats entered the fishery and landed 112,284 pounds of spot prawns, approximately 84% of the total offshore catch. WDFW believes that this increase in trawl involvement was in part driven by a dramatic increase in demand for spot prawns, especially for the live market. The WDFW expressed concern about the dramatic increase in fishing effort evidenced in this 1997 season. Interest in the fishery was growing. In addition, the potential for rapid expansion was great, due to significant reductions in groundfish quotas and below-average catches of other important fisheries, such as pink shrimp. These management concerns and limited knowledge about the “distribution, abundance, and sustainability of the resource” (WDFW 2001c) led WDFW to recommend that the provisions of the Emerging Commercial Fisheries Act (ECFA) be applied to the coastal spot prawn fishery. The Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission Member Tribes Map Courtesy Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission 28
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The Spot Prawn Fishery: A Status Report - Earth Economics

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