Every June, my husband and I leave Port Townsend on our fishing boat to migrate north to Southeast Alaska where we spend the summer months catching wild salmon. This year is different.

Instead, we are fighting to save our jobs and salmon fishery from Wild Fish Conservancy’s relentless litigation against fishing families and coastal communities. The lawsuit targeting Southeast Alaska’s Chinook salmon troll fishery pushes a distorted narrative that our small-boat fishery is causing the decline of endangered Chinook and orcas in Washington.

WFC is also seeking to shut down the hatchery program that was created to provide more prey for orcas.

We became trollers because it’s the quintessential independent, family-run operation. We fish sustainably using hook and line gear. Our community of conservation-minded fishermen care deeply about the future of salmon and the marine ecosystem.

WFC is attempting to scapegoat Southeast Alaska’s troll fishery. Closing Southeast Alaska’s troll fishery will be devastating to fishing families. Sadly, WFC’s lawsuit won’t benefit Chinook or orcas but instead pits communities against each other and distracts from real, well-documented threats. Closer to home our local waters have become less friendly for orcas, animals highly sensitive to sound and pollution. Upstream dams are killing both juvenile and adult salmon of the Columbia and Snake Rivers. And there’s the tragic 1960-1970s harvest of orcas for marine parks during which more than 200 were captured. We cannot ignore the impacts these local challenges have had and continue to have.

We hope that the courts will follow the science and listen to federal agencies and fishery experts who have concluded that Southeast Alaska’s troll fishery isn’t impacting orcas or Chinook. We urge Washington’s members of Congress to defend our fishing families and invest in salmon habitat restoration and solutions that will begin the recovery of Washington’s salmon and orcas.

Amy Grondin

PORT TOWNSEND