Hoh Indian Tribe v. Baldrige

522 F. Supp. 683, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18096
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Washington
DecidedSeptember 22, 1981
DocketC 81-742R(C)
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 522 F. Supp. 683 (Hoh Indian Tribe v. Baldrige) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hoh Indian Tribe v. Baldrige, 522 F. Supp. 683, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18096 (W.D. Wash. 1981).

Opinion

*685 FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

CRAIG, Senior District Judge.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

This case involves the treaty fishing rights of three separate Washington coastal Indian tribes as they are affected by the regulations of the defendant Secretary of Commerce governing fishing for salmon in the waters of the Fishery Conservation Zone off California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska and regulations of the intervenor-defendant State of Washington in state waters of northwestern Washington.

The action was commenced on June 22, 1981, and the matter came on for hearing August 3, 1981, on plaintiffs’ and defendant’s cross-motions for summary judgment.

This Court has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1362 and 16 U.S.C. §§ 1855(d) and 1861(d). Venue exists under 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b) and (e).

The Court having considered the Pleadings, the Administrative Record before the Secretary of Commerce, testimony given before the Court, and the written and oral submissions of the parties, now hereby makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. The Hoh Indian Tribe, the Quileute Tribe of the Quileute Reservation, and the Quinault Indian Nation are separate and distinct federally recognized Indian tribes each of which separately holds fishing rights secured by the Treaty of Olympia, 12 Stat. 971, to take salmon and other fish at their respective usual and accustomed fishing places located on and off of their respective reservations. These rights have been authoritatively construed and defined in the ongoing case of United States v. Washington, 384 F.Supp. 312 (W.D.Wash. 1974), 520 F.2d 676 (9th Cir. 1975), 459 F.Supp. 1020, 573 F.2d 1123 (9th Cir. 1978), substantially affirmed sub nom. Washington v. Washington Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel Association, 443 U.S. 658, 99 S.Ct. 3055, 61 L.Ed.2d 823 (1979). This Court has retained continuing jurisdiction in that case. The Quileute Reservation is located at the mouth of the Quillayute River, the Hoh Reservation is at the mouth of the Hoh River, and the Quinault Reservation is further south on the Washington coast and includes the mouth and major portions of the Queets River and substantially all of the Quinault River and its tributaries. The Quinault Nation also has off-reservation usual and accustomed fishing grounds in Grays Harbor and portions of its watershed. The location of each reservation was selected primarily to provide the respective tribes and bands a home near, and direct access to and exclusive use of, some of their principal salmon and steel-head fishing grounds.

2. The Secretary of Commerce (hereinafter “Secretary”) is responsible for approving or preparing, implementing, and (together with the Secretary of Transportation) enforcing fishery management plans or amendments to such plans (hereinafter collectively “FMP”) under the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act (90 Stat. 331, 16 U.S.C. §§ 1801-1882) (hereinafter “FCMA”) in the Fishery Conservation Zone from 3 to 200 miles off the coast of the United States (16 U.S.C. § 1811) and for promulgating regulations governing such fisheries. The Secretary relies heavily on the statutorily-created (16 U.S.C. § 1852) Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) and North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) for development of, and for advice on, plans, and the preparation of proposed regulations, for the fisheries off California, Oregon, and Washington, and off Alaska, respectively. The FCMA requires that any fishery management plan must contain the conservation and management measures which are consistent with the national standards set forth in 16 U.S.C. § 1851, the provisions of the FCMA, and any other applicable law including applicable treaties with Indian tribes.

3. Salmon and steelhead are anadromous fish which, in the case of the runs primarily involved here, are hatched in the *686 waters of the north coastal rivers of Washington, migrate to the Pacific Ocean at varying stages of their juvenile development — depending upon the species — where they pasture and mature over a wide migratory range extending through waters off Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon, and to a lesser extent California — before returning to their native stream to spawn. In the course of their migration they are subject to fisheries in the ocean waters and, upon their return to their respective rivers of origin, to fisheries in those rivers and interconnected lakes. The regulatory jurisdiction over these fisheries is extremely complex, and is fragmented among the Secretary, Canada, four coastal states, an international commission, the Secretary of the Interior and the individual treaty tribes depending upon the area or fishermen involved.

4. The coho salmon is perpetuated primarily on a three-year cycle. The typical life history pattern consists of one year of juvenile residence in fresh-water and two summers in the marine environment, with maturing adults returning to spawn in their third year of life during the months from August through December. United States v. Washington, 443 U.S. 658, 99 S.Ct. 3055, 61 L.Ed.2d 823, Ex. JX 2A, p. 4 and Tables 1, 38 — 41. Coho salmon originating in the Washington coastal rivers contribute to ocean fisheries from Southeast Alaska to California (id., p. 32).

5. The FMP for Managing the 1981 Salmon Fisheries off the coast of California, Oregon and Washington, prepared by the PFMC (hereinafter “1981 FMP”), which is in the form of an amendment to the 1978 FMP for those fisheries, was approved by the Secretary’s designee on May 18, 1981, and the 1981 Regulations were issued as Emergency Interim rules, effective June 5, 1981. 46 F.R. 30633. They were extended for an additional 45 days on July 22, 1981. 46 F.R. 37703.

6. For management sub-area A, the area between the Canadian boundary and Cape Falcon, Oregon (also referred to as the WPP area), the Secretary’s 1981 regulations provide for a commercial troll season from May 1 to May 31 for all salmon species except coho and an all salmon species commercial season from July 15 to September 1, the latter being subject to closure when the commercial coho harvest in the area reaches 372,000 fish.

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522 F. Supp. 683, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18096, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hoh-indian-tribe-v-baldrige-wawd-1981.