The Wild Fish Conservancy’s use of the Equal Access to Justice Act is alarming the small-boat fishermen who fought the conservancy’s lawsuit that sought to close the Southeast Alaska Chinook troll fishery to preserve migratory Chinook as prey for the endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales that feed in waters near Puget Sound.
WFC, a membership-based nonprofit with offices in Duvall, Washington, filed that lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service in U.S. District Court in Washington in 2020. For months in 2023, a District Court order in the case threatened to close the summer a...
Reader Comments(1)
Brennen Hankins writes:
WFC as an organization may not profit from the lawsuit...but Ms. Helverson certainly does. Per ProPublica: 2021: $77,358 ($68,959 salary, +$8,399 in other compensation) 2022: $91,387 ($82,155 salary, +$9,232 in other comp) 2023 (most recent): $97,250 ($87,645 salary, +$9,605 in other comp) During the lawsuit, she got a near-$20,000 raise in salary, and made almost $100,000 annually to disrupt the fishing industry of a state she doesn't even live in. They can pay their own legal bills.
01/30/2026, 9:29 pm
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