Court upholds penalty in 2014 illegal fishing case

The Alaska Supreme Court has upheld the $20,000 fine imposed on a Metlakatla commercial fisherman who took coho salmon in 2014 in a closed area, without a state fisheries permit.

In a 4-0 ruling, the justices rejected the appeal filed by the fisherman and the Metlakatla Indian Community, which had argued the state lacked jurisdiction in the waters around Alaska’s only Indian reserve.

John Scudero Jr. was cited for three commercial fishing violations and fined $20,000 after a one-day trial in 2015. The U.S. Coast Guard in 2014 reported the violations after they had boarded his vessel in waters closed by the state and found almost four dozen coho salmon aboard, which Scudero told the officers he intended to sell to the seafood processing plant in Metlakatla.

Scudero testified in his 2015 trial that he was “fishing to provide for [his] family like [he’s] done for almost 40, 45 years.”

He told the court his “way of life” included “subsistence, bartering, commercial fishing and whatever ways … we [subsist] off the land in Indian Country,” although he acknowledged he was fishing outside the reserve’s boundaries when boarded by the Coast Guard.

In his appeal, Scudero and the Metlakatla Indian Community argued that tribal citizens fishing in a limited area outside the reservation’s boundaries were not under the state’s jurisdiction. They contend that the 1891 federal law establishing the reserve was intended to create a self-sustaining community, which would include fishing.

In rejecting the appeal, the court ruled on July 23 that multiple U.S. Supreme Court cases have held that tribes’ off-reservation hunting and fishing rights are subject to state regulations intended to conserve fish and wildlife populations.

Scudero also appealed the $20,000 fine as excessive and disproportionate to his offenses, and that it “will chill and deter protest fishing.” He also appealed that the court should not have suspended his fishing privileges because the offenses were economic and the punishment “could have a significant impact” on him.

“Scudero’s fine is neither excessive nor disproportionate to the offenses. The court imposed the statutory minimum fine,” the Alaska Supreme Court order said.