Saving Seafood

Executive leaves mine project amid recorded comment fallout

September 24, 2020 — The man helping lead efforts to develop a copper and gold mine near the headwaters of a major salmon fishery in Alaska has resigned following the release of recorded comments in which he “embellished” relationships with elected and regulatory officials, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. said Wednesday.

Tom Collier served as CEO for the Pebble Limited Partnership, which is owned by Canada-based Northern Dynasty and is seeking a key federal permit for the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region, which supports the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery. Collier’s resignation is effective immediately, Pebble spokesperson Mike Heatwole said by email.

The resignation letter was not released. Heatwole called it “a private matter between employer and employee.”

John Shively, a former Pebble partnership CEO, will act as interim CEO, Northern Dynasty said. Efforts to reach Collier weren’t immediately successful Wednesday.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Pebble CEO resigns after scandal caused by secret recordings

September 24, 2020 — The Pebble Partnership’s CEO Tom Collier has resigned in the fallout of secretly recorded videos that were posted online Monday, 21 September.

Parent company Northern Dynasty Minerals published a statement announcing that John Shively will step back into the role of CEO for the partnership on an interim basis. Shively has been serving as chairman of the board for Pebble since 2014, when he handed off the title of CEO to Collier.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Alaska fishermen hurt by U.S. trade standoffs can apply for federal relief funds

September 23, 2020 — Alaska fishermen can increase their federal trade relief funds by adding higher poundage prices for 15 fish and shellfish species. While it’s welcomed, the payouts are a band-aid on a bigger and ongoing problem.

Through December 14, fishermen can apply to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Seafood Trade Relief Program (STRP) if their bottom line has been hurt by the Trump administration’s ongoing trade standoffs, primarily with China.

“STRP is part of a federal relief strategy to support fishermen and other producers while the administration continues to work on free, fair and reciprocal trade deals to open more markets to help American producers compete globally,” said a USDA fact sheet.

The damages to fishermen are calculated as the difference with a trade tariff and the baseline without it based on 2019 catches.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Warming conditions are making northern Bering Sea more friendly for pink salmon

September 22, 2020 — Pink salmon, the most plentiful and cheapest of Alaska’s five salmon species, are finding more hospitable habitat in the warming northern Bering Sea, a new study finds.

There is a clear link between warming temperatures at Nome and better juvenile salmon productivity in rivers that flow into the northern Bering Sea, said the study, published in the journal Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography.

Pink salmon, a species more associated with waters off Alaska’s southern coast, appear to be among those boreal species working their way into more northern waters in response to climate change.

Pink salmon’s short life cycle makes their population more adaptable to these changes in environmental conditions, according to the study. Other salmon species spend up to seven years at sea before returning to freshwater to spawn, but pink salmon have a total life cycle of only two years — counting their time in both saltwater and freshwater — and that relatively quick turnaround gives more chances for succeeding generations to shift their migration patterns.

“Pink salmon are definitely good at straying,” said lead author Ed Farley of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “They definitely want to go seek out other habitat.”

Read the full story at Arctic Today

ALASKA: In recordings, Pebble executives discuss influence with Gov. Mike Dunleavy and one day expanding the mine

September 22, 2020 — An environmental group released videos on Monday of Pebble mine executives privately discussing their pull with Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and other Alaska political leaders and the huge potential for expansion at the controversial Southwest Alaska copper and gold prospect.

The recordings, made by a Washington, D.C. group, the Environmental Investigation Agency, underscore longstanding criticisms by mine opponents about Pebble Limited’s political influence in Alaska and the White House.

The group hired people to pose as potential investors interested in the mine’s long-term prospects during video calls with the Pebble officials in August and September 2020, according to a written statement from the group.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: New grant helps fund cold-storage facility at Anchorage airport

September 22, 2020 — Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport will be the recipient of a USD 21 million (EUR 17.9 million) federal transportation grant that will help fund a large cold-storage facility at the site, the U.S. congressional delegation from Alaska announced last Monday.

Plans for the site itself had already been announced, but the grant, which was awarded to the Alaska Energy Authority, was made public last week.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Alaska Symphony of Seafood rescheduled to 2021

September 22, 2020 — The Alaska Symphony of Seafood, scheduled to be held this November, has been postponed until spring 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a press release from the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation (AFDF), which organizes the event.

The program has been hosted since 1994 and allows Alaskan value-added seafood products to compete against each other, which “encourages companies to invest in product development, helps them promote those new products and competitively positions Alaska Seafood in national and global markets.” A call for products will be reissued early next year.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ALASKA: Secret recordings of Pebble Mine executives reveal plans for larger mine than proposed

September 22, 2020 — Two executives with the company seeking to develop an open-pit gold and copper mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska, said they expect the project to grow much larger in size than the proposal currently under final review by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Northern Dynasty Minerals CEO Ronald Thiessen and Pebble Limited Partnership CEO Tom Collier told members of an environmental advocacy group posing as potential investors that the mine could operate for much longer than currently proposed, and could expand to other areas where the partnership owns mineral rights.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

An Alaska Mine Project Might Be Bigger Than Acknowledged

September 21, 2020 — Executives overseeing the development of a long-disputed copper and gold mine in Alaska were recorded saying they expected the project to become much bigger, and operate for much longer, than outlined in the proposal that is awaiting final approval by the Army Corps of Engineers.

The executives, who were recorded in remote meetings by members of an environmental advocacy group posing as potential investors, said the project, Pebble Mine, could potentially operate for 160 years or more beyond the current proposal of 20 years. And it could quickly double its output after the initial two decades, they said.

“Once you have something like this in production why would you want to stop?” Ronald W. Thiessen, chief executive of Northern Dynasty Minerals, the parent company of Pebble Limited Partnership, said in one of the recordings. Mr. Thiessen said local villages in the area would support extended operation of the mine because of the tax money they would receive. “It’s $10,000 per man, woman and child,” he said. “They want that to go away? No.”

Read the full story at The New York Times