Saving Seafood

Alaska salmon: Bristol Bay opens with Pebble Mine decision pending

June 30, 2020 — The biggest red salmon run in the world is building at Bristol Bay.

Up to 50 million fish could surge into its eight river systems in coming weeks, on par with past seasons. When it’s all done, the fishery will provide nearly half the global supply of wild sockeye salmon.

But this summer is different.

Beyond the restrictions and fears and economic chaos caused by covid-19, fishermen are waiting to learn if the development of a massive gold and copper mine that’s been hanging over their heads for two decades will get a greenlight from the federal government. The news is expected to come at the height of the summer season.

In mid-July, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expected to unveil its federal record of decision on the permit application by Northern Dynasty of Vancouver, Canada, to build the Pebble Mine at the sprawling mosaic of headwaters that provide the spawning and rearing grounds for the region’s salmon.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Pebble offers to pay annual dividend to residents of Bristol Bay, hotbed of opposition to Pebble’s mine

June 19, 2020 — The proposed Pebble Mine has always faced fierce opposition in Bristol Bay. Now, Pebble is offering to pay every adult resident of the area an annual dividend.

Pebble Chief Executive Tom Collier says he wants to share the benefits of the mine with the region, even before the mine delivers its first load of ore. Pebble says it will pay at least $3 million a year in dividends, divided among those who register to receive it.

“(If) 3,000 sign up, it’ll be $1,000 a year,” Collier said. “And as the project becomes profitable, it will be much more than that.”

Collier says he’s making good on a commitment he made to the region.

Read the full story at KTOO

Pebble mine developer launches plan to share profits with local residents

June 17, 2020 — The developer of the controversial proposed Pebble mine in Southwest Alaska launched a profit-sharing plan for residents from the Bristol Bay region on Tuesday, drawing condemnation from an Alaska Native corporation opposed to the project.

The Pebble Performance Dividend will share 3% of the net profits from the copper, gold and molybdenum mine, Pebble Limited Partnership said in a statement on Tuesday.

The mine won’t make a profit during its initial years of construction, but Pebble pledged to provide $3 million annually during that period to ensure a dividend. Under that plan, if 3,000 residents applied for the program, each would receive $1,000 once construction starts, the company said.

“Developing a mine at Pebble will provide jobs, economic activity, local tax revenue and infrastructure,” said Tom Collier, Pebble chief executive.

The program will provide one more way local residents can benefit, he said.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could permit the Pebble mine this summer. If permitted, the open-pit mine would be about 200 miles southwest of Anchorage, near salmon-producing headwaters of the valuable Bristol Bay fishery.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Alaska’s Controversial Pebble Mine Was Dead. Not Anymore.

May 28, 2020 — The Bristol Bay region in southwest Alaska is home to the world’s largest sockeye salmon run, a resource that brings in $1.5 billion annually and provides a vital food source for thousands of Alaska Native residents who live there.

It’s also home to a vast copper and gold deposit worth an estimated $500 billion, known as the Pebble Deposit. A plan to extract that wealth by building a massive open pit mine at the heart of the environmentally sensitive Bristol Bay watershed has become the environmental fight of the century for Alaska.

FRONTLINE told that story in Alaska Gold, broadcast in 2012, when the mine’s opponents seemed to have won the day.

But the Pebble mine got a new lease on life under the Trump administration, and in late 2017, the Pebble Partnership, the company behind the mine, filed for a permit with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Read the full story at Frontline

Opponents lose court case against Alaska mine near fishery

April 21, 2020 — Opponents have lost a court case against the proposed copper and gold mine near a major salmon fishery in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region.

U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason ruled the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could withdraw a “proposed determination” about potential negative mine impacts dating from 2014, Alaska Public Media reported Sunday.

The determination had concluded the mining project, named the Pebble Mine, posed too great a threat to the salmon-rich waters of Bristol Bay.

The judge’s ruling was based on the amount of latitude government agencies have and what is subject to legal review, rather than the merits or dangers of the mine.

The case focused on a “preemptive veto” the EPA issued during the administration of President Barack Obama, before Pebble Limited Partnership filed an application for the mine in Southwest Alaska.

The mine’s federal permit application is pending with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the EPA retains the right to veto the permit, a power that was not diminished by Friday’s ruling.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Seattle Times

Long road to relief: Mississippi oystermen slated for $1 million in disaster checks

February 21, 2020 — Oysters are having a moment, if you haven’t noticed. Even small towns are getting oyster bars, and national demand has skyrocketed.

But down on the Gulf Coast, oystermen (and blue crab fishermen) have spent the last decade struggling to stay afloat in the face of massive freshwater runoff events when the Army Corps of Engineers opens the Bonnet Carré Spillway to spare New Orleans infrastructure from floodwaters.

“The spillway openings had a devastating effect on our fisheries in 2011, 2016, 2018, and two in 2019,” says Ryan Bradley, executive director of Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United and a 2018 NF Highliner. “And the only time disasters were declared was 2011 and now 2019.”

A freshwater spillover shocks nearshore oyster stocks with a sudden and deadly change in salinity. That water quality change also affects young crab. Fisheries advocates were able to win a congressional disaster declaration for the 2011 losses to the oyster and blue crab fisheries.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

ALASKA: Pebble sees signs in new federal report that mine will secure key approval

February 13, 2020 — A new version of a federal environmental review for the proposed Pebble mine has angered the mine’s opponents and encouraged its developer.

The Army Corps of Engineers will use the final review to decide whether to give the controversial mine a key permit it needs before it can be built.

The Corps had provided the report to several cooperating agencies involved in the review process, such as state and federal agencies and tribal governments. The Anchorage Daily News obtained an executive summary of the Corps’ preliminary final environmental review that was leaked to reporters.

The report could foreshadow what’s to come.

Tom Collier, chief executive of developer Pebble Limited Partnership, is pleased. He said the report’s release, and its major conclusions, indicate the company will see a decision in its favor by mid-2020.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

NMFS Seeks to Streamline Aquaculture Permitting While a Washington Federal Court Interjects Caution

October 21, 2019 — In October 2019, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) published its Draft Outline for a Work Plan for a Federal Aquaculture Regulatory Task Force (Draft Outline) in the Federal Register Notice. The Draft Outline identifies three goals that NMFS intends to use to improve regulatory efficiency for freshwater and marine aquaculture, as well as streamline regulations and management decisions.

  1. “Improve the efficiency and predictability of aquaculture permitting in state and federal waters.” Some of the objectives identified to achieve this goal include expanding the categories of use for the Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) Nationwide Permit 48 (NWP 48), and NPDES general permits or developing new general permits, creating regional interagency groups and regional permit processes, and establishing federal processes for testing and certifying the human health requirements of aquaculture in federal waters.
  2. “Implement a national approach to aquatic animal health management of aquaculture.” Identified objectives for attaining this goal include collaboration among partners and stakeholders to establish standards or guidelines for aquatic animal and aquaculture health, as well as further clarifying and defining federal agency roles in the import and export of aquatic animals

Read the full story at The National Law Review

Murkowski questions data gaps on Alaska’s Pebble Mine

September 30, 2019 — On Thursday, Sept. 26, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski released a report calling for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take its time to address the concerns of key state and federal agencies, as well as the region’s stakeholders, before submitting its decision on permitting for Pebble Mine near Alaska’s Bristol Bay.

The Army Corps of Engineers announced this week that it would perform a “thorough and transparent review” before issuing its final decision.

The announcement came after Murkowski again raised questions about the EPA’s criticism of the Army Corps’ Draft Environmental Impact Statement, including data gaps and inaccurate statements.

“If the data, if the science out there that has been raised by these agencies can’t demonstrate that you can have a successful mining project in an area that is as sensitive as the Bristol Bay watershed, then a permit should not issue,” Murkowski said.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

ALASKA: Murkowski says Pebble mine shouldn’t be permitted unless data ‘gaps’ get explained

September 25, 2019 — Sen. Lisa Murkowski last week expressed strong concerns about the permitting process for the Pebble copper and gold mine, saying at an event organized by a mine opponent that Pebble should not be permitted unless key questions are answered.

The Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies have raised “justifiable” issues with the Army Corps of Engineers’ 1,400-page draft review of the project’s potential impacts, she said.

“We have read what the EPA has said, and their very strong criticism of inadequacy of statements that just didn’t hold up, of data that wasn’t sufficient,” she said Sept. 18.

“So I look at that and say if the data, if the science out there that has been raised by these agencies can’t demonstrate that you can have a successful mining project in an area that is as sensitive as the Bristol Bay watershed then a permit should not issue,” she said.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News