Proposed pit mines in Alaska threaten wild salmon

Fishing boats in Bristol Bay c.1950, Ward Wells, Anchorage Museum. Click here.

Sent us by Bob Massengale, Project  Development, Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association, who writes that in Bristol Bay, "… where I've fished for two summers now. It's one of the world's last wild salmon fisheries, and it has been a commercial fishery (in westernized form) for 127 years (and supported cultures and families for 1000s of years before that). Bristol is a huge political issue up here because these huge international mining conglomerates want to open up an enormous pit to mine in and send out to Japan and anywhere but Dillingham. The mine poses a huge threat to the tributaries of the Bay's salmon waters, and could drastically alter habitat in what is now a pristine and undeveloped environment."