Saving Seafood

Groups pledge to fight Pebble Mine with their ‘last penny’

October 10, 2019 — Standing on the steps of the James M. Fitzgerald United States Courthouse in 40-degree Farenheight weather, speaker after speaker behind a banner declaring “Defend Bristol Bay”, lambasted recent federal actions that appear to ready the way for the development of Pebble Mine.

The proposed open-pit gold, copper and molybdenum mine is nearly universally opposed by the fishing industry out of concern that it could imperil salmon stocks in the prolific Bristol Bay fishery, the major driver of the state’s sockeye supply. That passion was on full display at the press conference held to mark the filing of a lawsuit against the US Environmental Protection Agency over its decision to withdraw protections implemented in 2014 under the Clean Water Act that could have posed a hurdle to the proposed mine.

In response to a reporter’s question about the cost of of the federal lawsuit, the plaintiffs — the Bristol Bay Native Association, the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation, United Tribes of Bristol Bay, the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association and the Bristol Bay Reserve Association — spoke of the cost of inaction rather than detail a dollar figure.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

ALASKA: Bristol Bay is outgrowing its wastewater infrastructure. Could a fish tax help fix it?

October 2, 2019 — The Bristol Bay Borough has a problem.

In the summer, its population of under 1,000 residents increases exponentially, as processors, fishers and cannery workers travel to work in the fishery. That puts a lot of strain on the outdated sewer system, including how much wastewater the sewage lagoon can hold.

“The end of May, we waited till as long as we could, then we discharged the Naknek lagoons,” said Bristol Bay Borough Public Works Director Roylene Gottschalk, speaking at a borough assembly meeting last month. “We were at nearly four times the capacity at some points. So it did put stress on the system.”

A proposed fisheries business tax is aimed at fixing that problem. The borough assembly voted unanimously in August to put it on the ballot in the borough’s upcoming election.

The measure would place a 1.5% tax on processed fish. That would impact processors in King Salmon, Naknek and South Naknek. Money collected by the tax would help pay for updates to the sewer system, which the borough estimates will cost a total of around $30 million.

Read the full story at KTOO

ALASKA: Opposition to Pebble Strong at Anchorage USACE Hearing

April 19, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — At the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hearing in Anchorage yesterday, there wasn’t enough time to hear everyone who had to speak. Dozens of people remained to testify as the hearing closed. Two-thirds of the public comments given were opposed to the Pebble mine plan and the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

A press conference prior to the hearing brought Bristol Bay tribes, lodge owners, salmon ecologists, fishermen and other scientists together to call for a better process.

“Bristol Bay residents are outraged that we have been dealing with Pebble for more than a decade. We are sick and tired of the greed and the lies,” said Gayla Hoseth, second chief of the Curyung Tribal Council and director of natural resources for the Bristol Bay Native Association.

“Yet we are here again to comment on an inadequate draft EIS based on Pebble’s incomplete application to build a mine in our pristine environment, because we want to protect this last wild salmon run on earth as it exists today, for this generation and for future generations,” she said.

Dr. Daniel Schindler, professor of Aquatic and Fishery Science at the University of Washington, agreed with Hoseth.

“The reality is, if you put garbage into [an EIS] process, you get garbage out of a process. And what we’re looking at here with the Draft EIS is one that distinctly underestimates risks to fish, to water, and to people. It is junk. The draft EIS should be thrown out. It makes some critical assumptions that basically make it an illegitimate assessment of risks to fish and water and people in Bristol Bay.”

Melanie Brown, a fourth generation Naknek River setnetter, was angry with the way members of the fishing industry have been treated by Pebble and the Corps of Engineers.

”They come in there with nothing to lose, selling a fantasy that we can dig a giant acid-generating pit upstream of some of the most prolific salmon habitat in the world and somehow the fish will be better for it,” Brown said.

“Rushing forward and disregarding the real and thoughtful concerns of those of us with everything to lose is not how the public process should be handled. Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay are proud to join thousands of Alaskans who have come out time and time again to save Bristol Bay from this ridiculous proposal.”

Earlier this month, Pebble Partnership admitted to financing a lawsuit brought by six fishermen against the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, an association of which each plaintiff is a member.

BBRSDA’s most recent response to the suit called it a “desperate attempt to muzzle a fishermen’s organization during the Pebble mine’s public comment period, which ends on May 30. Most importantly, the projects in question fall within our statutory purposes and advance our mission of maximizing the value of the Bristol Bay fishery.”

The post on the BBRSDA’s website noted that Mike Heatwole, a spokesman for Pebble, said the mining developer agreed to fund the lawsuit because the fishermen have limited funds.

“Ironically, the complaint alleges that BBRSDA’s actions related to the Pebble Mine negatively impacts the plaintiffs, when in fact we strongly believe it benefits their fishing businesses,” the post reads.

“We’d like people to understand that the BBRSDA is more than just seafood advertising. We were created as a Development association, not just a Marketing association or an Advertising non-profit.

“Our primary purpose is the promotion of regional seafood products and like our namesake, the word ‘promote’ has a broad definition: ‘to contribute to the growth or prosperity of.’ We undertake a variety of activities that fit within our statutory purposes and collectively function to raise the value of the fishery.

“Scrutinizing plans for an enormous open-pit mine at the headwaters of this fishery, which could seriously damage the marketability and abundance of this fishery, clearly seeks to protect this fishery’s prosperity. We are also very concerned the mine will cause reputational damage to the fishery, undermining our substantial ongoing investment in branding and marketing Bristol Bay sockeye,” the group said.

This year’s harvest for sockeye salmon at Bristol Bay is projected to be 28 million fish. Noting the current value of Bristol Bay salmon, the association acknowledged what is behind it.

“Investments made by fishermen, processors, and the BBRSDA in marketing, quality, and sustainability are paying off and meeting the mission of maximizing fishery value. The value of Bristol Bay sockeye averaged $156 million from 2012-2016, but exceeded $270 million in each of the past two years,” the group wrote on the BBRSDA website.

“This is the most valuable wild salmon fishery in the world. It has a terrific opportunity to occupy a large, premium niche in the global salmon market, and we are working to realize that future. The Pebble Mine seriously threatens this fishery’s bright future,” they concluded.

This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

ALASKA: Siding with the mine: Bristol Bay fishermen team up with Pebble

April 10, 2019 — A group of Bristol Bay fishermen has filed suit to stop the region’s seafood marketing group from spending funds that they say are aimed at fighting the development of Pebble Mine. The mine’s developer is footing the bill for the lawsuit.

Gary Nielsen, Trefim Andrew, Tim Anelon, Henry Olympic, and Abe and Braden Williams claim the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association is using $250,000 on efforts to stop the mine. That money is earmarked for marketing local fish, and is being “unlawfully spent,” they say.

“The mine presents a significant threat to this fishery’s bright future, especially if the process is going to omit rigorous scientific analysis and ignore the inconvenient concerns of downstream stakeholders,” said Andy Wink, the association’s executive director.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

ALASKA: Pebble backs lawsuit to halt Bristol Bay seafood association’s funding for anti-mine groups

April 9, 2019 — Six Bristol Bay commercial fishermen are suing a regional seafood association they belong to, challenging over $250,000 in contracts it made with groups that advocate against the proposed Pebble Mine.

The Pebble Limited Partnership confirmed it is paying for the litigation.

The plaintiffs — Trefim Andrew, Tim Anelon, Gary Nielsen, Henry Olympic, Abe Williams and Braden Williams — are challenging the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association’s recent contracts with SalmonState and the United Tribes of Bristol Bay. Both SalmonState and UTBB are ardent Pebble opponents.

In their complaint, the plaintiffs allege the lawsuit is justified because BBRSDA can only use its funding to market seafood, based on the state statute that allowed for its creation.

BBRDSA leaders said they believe the lawsuit is designed to limit their participation in the ongoing federal public comment period for the proposed Pebble Mine.

“Consumers choose to pay more for wild sockeye salmon because it’s a healthy, abundant, premium wild salmon species from a pristine and unspoiled environment,” BBRSDA executive director Andy Wink said in a statement. “The Pebble Mine could jeopardize that, and at the very least we believe it’s important to engage in the permitting process so that if the mine does proceed, it’s built with adequate safeguards for fisherman, residents, and sockeye consumers.”

BBRDSA characterized its contracts with SalmonState and UTBB as funding for “educational efforts.”

Read the full story at KTOO

ALASKA: Fishermen’s group calls Corps’ analysis of potential tailings dam failure at Pebble ‘woefully inadequate’

March 4, 2019 — A new study commissioned by a Bristol Bay seafood marketing group paints a doomsday scenario if the bulk tailings dam at the proposed Pebble mine ever suffered a catastrophic breach, an outcome the U.S Army Corps of Engineers has called very remote and one the mine developer has taken steps to avoid.

Billions of gallons of mud would smother valley bottoms, covering vast stretches of salmon habitat, according to an executive summary released Friday. Finely ground-up waste material from mining would travel downstream and spill into Bristol Bay more than 200 river miles from the mine site, threatening the valuable salmon fishery.

“Given the fine-grained nature of the material, it is extremely likely that these tailings would continue to Bristol Bay, where they would eventually settle out in the Nushagak River estuary,” the summary says.

Read the full story at Anchorage Daily News

ALASKA: U.S. Army Corps releases draft report on Pebble Mine

February 21, 2019 — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released Pebble Mine’s draft environmental impact statement on Wednesday, one of the biggest stepping stones in the permitting process for the proposed copper-and-gold mine near the headwaters of Bristol Bay.

The purpose of the draft EIS is to analyze the project’s proposal and present alternative plans. The environmental review, totaling more than 1,400 pages, the Army Corps proposes multiple actions including an analysis of permitting the mine, alternate transportation corridors and rejecting the mine proposal altogether.

A 90-day public comment period will begin March 1, allowing stakeholders to give their thoughts on the report before a final version is delivered to federal agencies. Opponents of the mine are pushing back against the comment period, claiming in isn’t a long enough timeline for thorough feedback.

“A 90-day comment period is far too short of a time period to review and comment on the recently released Draft Environmental Impact Statement,” said Andy Wink, executive director of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association. “The speed at which insufficient materials are being pushed through this mine’s permitting process is irresponsible given that the Bristol Bay salmon ecosystem is a biological wonder of the world. This region contains the world’s largest wild salmon runs, which have supported a rich culture for millennia and sustained a thriving commercial fishery for more than 130 years.”

“A 270-day comment period on the Draft EIS is the first – and necessary – step in holding the Pebble Limited Partnership accountable during the permitting process,” said Bristol Bay Native Corporation CEO Jason Metrokin. “Bristol Bay cannot become a laboratory to test unproven and unprecedented mining practices.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Early signs show strong wild Alaska salmon market for 2019

February 19, 2019 — A lot can change in a few months, fisheries economists are quick to say, but early indications point to very favorable conditions for wild Alaska salmon prices in 2019, especially for sockeye, the state’s top-dollar species.

Andy Wink, a fisheries economist who also heads the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association (BBRSDA), is happy with how the market is looking for the upcoming season.

“I think we’re at a pretty good place, and have been for the last few years in salmon markets. We’ve seen growing demand and the farmed salmon supply hasn’t grown as fast as it did in different points in the past,” Wink said. “It’s left producers in a good position.”

Leading farmed fish producers Norway and Chile, regulated by their respective governments, are bumping up against a threshold for the maximum number of salmon they can produce, and both are fighting blight. Norway, the world’s top farmed salmon producer, has had persistent problems with sea lice, while second-place producer Chile has been struggling with disease, primarily piscirickettsiosis, prompting environmental groups and health organizations to raise concerns over Chile’s overuse of antibiotics.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US, China are drivers of push for more salmon production

January 18, 2019 — Demand for salmon continues to be strong globally, but the dual markets of the United States and China have salmon sellers licking their lips at the massive opportunity they represent.

Salmon’s position as a healthy staple is driving interest in the species worldwide, but the low rates of per capita consumption in the U.S. and China show that there’s still plenty of room to grow the markets in both countries, a panel of salmon experts speaking on Wednesday, 16 January at the Global Seafood Market Conference in Coronado, California, U.S.A., agreed.

Natural limits in production from wild-catch salmon fisheries, and more complicated set of restrictions on farmed salmon production, means much of that demand likely won’t be met anytime soon. As a result, prices for salmon are rising. The average price of a pound of salmon in September 2015 was USD 4.12 (EUR 3.62) in 2015 and three years later, in September 2018, the price had risen to USD 5.80. (EUR 5.09).

“That’s the outcome of that gap between supply and demand,” Andy Wink, the executive director of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, said.

Wink is especially bullish on the potential for the United States to become a bigger consumer of salmon, even though it already represents the largest salmon market in the world.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Keep your cool: Bristol Bay touts new ice totes at PME

November 20, 2018 — Quality is king these days in Bristol Bay, Alaska. Well, so is quantity, especially after the bay tallied its biggest run in 125 years this season. But back to the quality thing. The Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association has spearheaded a push for colder, less traumatized fish, working with fishermen, processors and buyers to get more and better fillets to consumers around the world. And it all starts with keeping fish cold from the moment they come out of the water.

“Chilling fish is about storing value, because you increase shelf life, and there’s a definite mathematical relationship between the value of the fish and how much shelf life it has once it’s processed. That all starts on the grounds with the chilling, and it goes right down the chain of custody into retail,” said Mike Ficcero, BBRSDA’s board president.

To that end, BBRSDA was at Pacific Marine Expo in Seattle this week, promoting new ice totes they hope will allow them to get more and better ice to Bristol Bay’s fleet, especially in remote districts on the east side of the bay like Egegik.

“We knew we needed to get more ice around the bay. It’s so important, a lot of boats take it, and chilling is critical the quality of the fish. Ice obviously melts on the tenders, and these insulated bags will allow us to have more efficient ice delivery,” said Andy Wink, the new executive director at BBRSDA.

Cameo Padilla, BBRSDA’s program manager, worked with Seattle Tarp and others to make the first bags, which will be rolled out in 2019.

Read the full story at National Fisherman