Personal Use Classification Lawsuit

The Chitina Dipnetters Association brought a lawsuit against the State of Alaska to force it to recognize the personal use fisheries with the same weight as the subsistence fisheries. The lawsuit was brought in 2XXX. After a long, hard, expensive fight, the courts decided that personal use fisheries would remain at a lower precedence than subsistence fisheries.

There is no effective distinction between subsistence and personal use fishing where there are plenty of resources for everyone to use. But it is important in times of diminished run strength. Since subsistence fisheries are considered high priority, they are last to be shut down to conserve the fish. We thought we had a good argument to place personal use fishers in that same status, but were ultimately were unable to make that argument stick. So it remains that during times of few fish, personal use dipnetters will be shut down and subsistence users can continue fishing.