Fishermen’s Finest loses cod appeal

In a split decision, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco yesterday rejected a complaint from Fishermen's Finest Inc. that it was shortchanged under Amendment 85, a federal action that divided the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands cod fishery among various fleets.

Seattle-based Fishermen’s Finest operates a pair of head-and-gut trawl vessels, the American No. 1 and the U.S. Intrepid.

Here’s the 28-page decision.

Be sure to check out Judge Richard R. Clifton’s dissenting opinion at the end.

Besides suggesting the American Fisheries Act factory trawl fleet is enjoying favoritism on top of its “lucrative monopoly” in the huge pollock fishery, the judge offers a dandy quote from Mark Twain.