A member of the Lummi Nation and former owner of a wholesale fish processor was sentenced Wednesday, Dec. 14, in U.S. District Court to three years of probation for violating the Lacey Act by selling illegally caught Columbia River salmon.
Scott Kinley knew the spring Chinook Columbia fishery was only open to Yakama Nation enrollees who were limited to fishing for subsistence and ceremonial purposes, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
From 2013 to 2019 Kinley operated Native American Fisheries, Inc., a seafood processing plant registered with the American Indian Food Program that was administered by the Intertribal Agricultural Council and funded through the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. He also regularly donated whole fish he purchased and processed to tribal charities, including Sche'lang'en Village and the Lummi Food Bank, according to court documents.
Kinley lied when he was stopped and questioned by fisheries officers, U.S. District Judge Lauren King said at the sentencing in Seattle.
"You lied and told them that the fish was for tribal elders. Instead of giving all of that fish to elders or providing it for a funeral or ceremonial purposes... you sold the vast majority of it and made tens of thousands of dollars."
"These fish were taken at a critical time, when the Yakama Nation and its fisheries partners were trying to boost spring Chinook salmon returns to the Columbia Basin," said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown in the release. "The high levels taken during this fishery prompted an emergency closure which hurt those tribal members who wanted fish for subsistence or ceremonial purposes."
Kinley knowingly purchased and sold more than 7,000 pounds of protected salmon, according to court records. He sold the fish for about $11.75 per pound wholesale, while the retail price was $19.99 retail.
The judge ordered Kinley, who now lives in Mesa, Arizona, to pay $143,088, the full retail value of the salmon, in restitution to the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission to fund habitat protection and restoration projects.
"Illegal commercial sales encourage overharvest which in turn is detrimental to salmon recovery and rebuilding efforts underway. These activities destroy our attempts at a fair system of allocation and can limit legal harvest in a given year. Lastly, the entire reason for limiting harvest is conservation and recovery, that is, to allow enough fish to make it to either spawning grounds or back to the hatcheries to ensure future generations of fish," Yakama Nation Fisheries Program Manager Donella Miller wrote in a victim impact statement.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Law Enforcement and the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Police Department, aided by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, investigated the case.
