Jet Ski Ban Apealed In Alaska: Jet Skis or personal watercraft were banned in Kachemak Bay and Fox River Flats Critical Habitat Areas for 19 years before Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang repealed the ban in 2021 which caused Alaska Quiet Rights Coalition and three other nonprofits to file a lawsuit.
In 2023, the Alaska Superior Court ruled in favor of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which resulted state appealing to the high court. On, Wednesday the five members of Alaska’s high court heard the arguments filed in the lawsuit that aims to restore the ban on Jet Skis.
Also Read:Metro Bank Sells Residential Mortgages to NatWest Group for 2.4 billion pounds
State Attorney Samuel Gottstein wrote in the lawsuit that “Jet skis are polarizing. People love them. Or they hate them. Whether to allow their use in Kachemak Bay divided the local community back in the 2000s, and it has continued to divide the local community ever since,”
On the other hand, Alaska Assistant Attorney General Laura Wolff who is representing Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said “The Commissioner determined that there just isn’t sufficient evidence that jet skis are affecting habitat in a way that they’re incompatible with the purpose of CHA’s. that’s the statutory interpretation analysis, the Superior Court definitely erred there.”
Judge Adolf Zeman ruled that Comisner doesn’t have the right to repeal the CHAs where Wolff replied “These CHA’s are pretty unique. There’s deep marine water. There’s tons of human activity, including oil tankers and cruise ships “so when you look at a study from the Everglades, when there aren’t many people going into the Everglades. That is a very different environment than a place where oil tankers are habitually going in and out of.”
Also Read:Top 5 most populated cities in the U.S 2024
On the other hand, State Attorney Samuel Gottstein said that “the state law that created the conservation areas prohibits the commissioner from revoking the watercraft ban once it was installed by regulation by a prior commissioner.”
For which Justice Jude Pate argued “So as a matter of logic — if they didn’t have the authority to repeal it, they didn’t have the authority to enact it. Doesn’t that automatically follow?”
To which State Attorney Samuel Gottstein answered, “protect and preserve habitat areas especially crucial to the perpetuation of fish and wildlife and to restrict all other uses not compatible with that primary purpose.”
For Now, the ban has been temporarily implemented in Alaska until the decision of the case.
Also Read: Banks shares Data With Uk Government: Is it a breach of Privacy?
