NEW AD CAMPAIGN CONTINUES BRISTOL BAY PUSH FOR PERMANENT PROTECTIONS
ALASKA BEAT
F
rom the Last Frontier to the nation’s capital, the push to permanently protect Bristol Bay’s healthy salmon runs – its sockeye returns set records in 2022 – means money is no object. In mid-September, the Bristol Bay Defense Fund announced a six-figure advertising campaign featuring video, print and digital platform ads that will all be featured in Alaska and Washington DC. Meanwhile, the Pebble Mine’s parent company continues to fight to get its project started near the headwaters of a sockeye run that approached the 70-million mark, the biggest ever recorded. “The recorded salmon runs have never been larger. The chorus of Alaskans has never been louder. Return peace to Bristol Bay, veto Pebble Mine now,” the ads state. As pressure increases on the DC-based Environmental Protection Agency to continue its halting of the project by going a step further to prevent future comparable mining projects, several restaurants in the nation’s capital joined Bristol Bay Salmon Week, the third week in September, by adding wild Alaska sockeye to their menus. “Finish the job” has been the battle cry from Alaska to the EPA’s headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue. “NRDC is proud to join Bristol Bay Tribes, commercial fishermen, and conservation groups this week This print ad complements those on video and digital platforms as part of an in DC supporting a decades-long aggressive campaign led by the Bristol fight led by Alaskans to defend Bay Defense Fund to pressure the Envithemselves, their communities, ronmental Protection Agency to implement permanent protection for the region and their lands against destruction from the Pebble Mine and comparable by a foreign mining company,” Joel projects. (BRISTOL BAY DEFENSE FUND) Reynolds, Western Director and Senior Attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said. “And make no mistake: This is a fight we must win. The will of the people has never been stronger, the salmon run in Bristol Bay has never been bigger, and the course for EPA has never been clearer. Now is the time for the EPA to veto the Pebble Mine.” Added Alannah Hurley, executive director of United Tribes of Bristol Bay: “As captured in the ad campaign, there is no time to waste and our people will continue to do whatever it takes to protect our home. The EPA must listen to the voices of the people of Bristol Bay and finalize protections this year that stop Pebble Mine for good.”
TWEET OF THE MONTH
Joseph Hazelwood, whose death was announced in mid-September at the age of 75, was accused of being drunk and negligent when the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground on a Prince William Sound reef on March 24, 1989, causing the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.
NOTABLE NUMBER
89,570
The number of coho that were counted along the Yukon River’s Pilot Station sonar as of September 5, which was more than 50,000 fewer fish than the median cumulative count for the date of 141,925. The low number prompted a closure of the Yukon’s sport silver fishery.
aksportingjournal.com | OCTOBER 2022
ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL
17