{"id":21106,"date":"2022-05-07T17:05:11","date_gmt":"2022-05-07T21:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=21106"},"modified":"2022-05-07T17:08:34","modified_gmt":"2022-05-07T21:08:34","slug":"episode-278-sockeye-salmon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=21106","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 278 SOCKEYE SALMON"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE 578   SOCKEYE SALMON ..AND BRISTOL BAY<\/p>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
May 7, 2022<\/div>\n

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See that little red dot?  That is the site of the Pebble Mine.  We worked <\/div>\n
somewhere in the centre in 1959;<\/div>\n

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If you eat canned salmon, odds are it came from Bristol Bay, Alaska.<\/div>\n

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Sockeye salmon\u2026.milions of them\u2026startled us.  We came looking for mineralization.<\/div>\n

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 <\/div>\n

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we did not know that sockeye<\/div>\n
salmon from Bristol Bay, Alaska. are highly valued  They provide 47% of the wild salmon<\/div>\n
fishing industry in the world.  <\/div>\n

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\u201cBetween 1990 and 2010, the annual average inshore run of sockeye salmon<\/div>\n
Was appoximately 37, 500,000 fish.\u201d (Sept. 9,2021).   Oher studies say 70 million.<\/div>\n

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\"Sockeye\"Wildlife<\/div>\n
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We did not know that.   This was a mining job;  We did not even  know that the <\/div>\n
river below our campsite was loaded with huge creatures working their way<\/div>\n
eastward to their prime spawning ground.  Sometimes they virtually walked up<\/div>\n
the river with their backs in the air where he water was shallow.<\/div>\n

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Bristol Bay, bounded on the south by the Aleutian Island chain, contains the<\/div>\n
largest commercial salmon fishery in the world.  <\/div>\n

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  We were<\/div>\n
searching for gold and copper. no one mentioned \u2019sockeye salmon\u2019 to us.  Only Bill Morrison brought<\/div>\n
a fishing rod and he was a sport fisherman looking for trout because they put<\/div>\n
up such a fight.<\/div>\n

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Look closely\u2026that\u2019s Bill ..a speck of red.<\/div>\n

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 When Bill slipped down to the river he was astounded.   The river seemed<\/div>\n
full of bright red fish\u2026all moving determinedly to the river headwaters.<\/div>\n
Today the estimate is that 71.2 million sockeye salmon will return to Brisol Bay<\/div>\n
(Nov 16, 2021)<\/div>\n

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Why so many?  British Columbia salmon runs are diminishing year by year.<\/div>\n
Why is Alaska\u2019s Bristol Bay watershed loaded with millions and millions of salmon.<\/div>\n

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\n

“Alannah Hurley, executive director of United Tribes of Bristol Bay<\/a>, a consortium working to protect the traditional Yup\u2019ik, Dena\u2019ina, and Alutiiq ways of life in southwest Alaska, calls Bristol Bay a \u201csalmon powerhouse.\u201d There are many reasons for Bristol Bay\u2019s bounty of salmon stocks. But chief among them is the robust health of the bay\u2019s mountainous watershed, which remains untouched by industrial development. \u201cThere are no dams, there are no mines,\u201d Hurley says in a telephone interview. \u201cThis is as pristine as it gets.\u201d<\/p>\n


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“THERE ARE NO MINES\u2026THIS IS AS PRISTINE AS IT GETS\u201d  (Alanah Hurley, United Tribes of Bristol Bay)<\/div>\n

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In 1959 we were the thin edge of a wedge that would change Bristol Bay.  The toxic waste<\/div>\n
of the mini industry tends to eliminate the word \u2018pristine\u2019 from vocabularies.<\/div>\n

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Of course we did not know that.  We did not know that the stage was being set for a momentous<\/div>\n
battle that would last 60 years.  A battle between the people dependent on Sockeye salmon<\/div>\n
and the Pebble Mine.   Both could not coexist. Only room for one.<\/div>\n
Sockeye Salmon or gold and Copper.<\/div>\n

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DON Vanevery nd Bill Morrison\u2026snagging sockeye salmon in Alaska in 1959<\/div>\n

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For us, we never thought of the big picture.  All we thought about was catching these <\/div>\n
30 pound salmon \u2026.snagging them because they were not interested in food \u2026then<\/div>\n
dragging them ashore for s picture. Then releasing them.  They had not long to live.<\/div>\n
The deeper the  redness, the closer to death.  Once spawning was complete they died<\/div>\n
and the rivers were clogged with their bodies.  All the better for the Kodiak bears\u2026<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n
Bill Morrison\u2026too big for 1 man to lift<\/div>\n

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\u201cAl, I got a bIg one\u2026must be better than 30 pounds.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cGuess you have to land it yourself, Bill.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cFor the record books.\u201d<\/div>\n

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The real battle was about to begin.   Would Bristol Bay remain pristine?.  Or would<\/div>\n
the inevitable leaks from Pebble mine tailing ponds kill the salmon industry?<\/div>\n

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Dillingham native fishing drying rack<\/div>\n

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We never thought of the future.  But there were s great many people who would<\/div>\n
find the next 60 years from 1959 to 2022 very stressful.   Victory was declared<\/div>\n
eventually but wil it last?<\/div>\n

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NEXT EPISODE:  THE PEBBLE MINE \u2026 LARGEST OPEN PIT MINE IN NORTH AMERICA\u2026MAYBE NOT<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n

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post script\"Guided\u201cThere are no dams, there are no mines. This is as pristine as it gets.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EPISODE 578   SOCKEYE SALMON ..AND BRISTOL BAY alan skeoch May 7, 2022 See that little red dot?  That is the site of the Pebble Mine.  We worked  somewhere in the centre in 1959; If you eat canned salmon, odds are it came from Bristol Bay, Alaska. Sockeye salmon\u2026.milions of them\u2026startled us.  We came looking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}