2021 Bristol Bay: A Record Year & A Reinstated Clean Water Act
Alaska Select's founder Captain Nick Lee led the f/v Anasazi through a tremendously successful sockeye salmon season up in Bristol Bay 2021. We are also happy to report that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is reinstating the Clean Water Act to protect the fishery from industrial-scale mining.
“As wild salmon populations decline globally, Bristol Bay's prolific wild salmon runs and the economies they support make it a place of international importance. This summer, over 65 million sockeye salmon returned to Bristol Bay, making it a record-breaking year for the world’s largest sockeye fishery.”
“[In September of this year] the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it would move to vacate its 2019 decision to withdraw proposed protections for Bristol Bay and reinstate the agency’s earlier 2014 Proposed Determination. These proposed protections would limit the amount of waste water and mine waste discharge that could be released into Waters of the United States in the Bristol Bay region.”
“Today’s announcement by the EPA represents a victory for common sense. Blocking industrial-scale mining from Bristol Bay is the right thing to do for the Alaska Native Peoples who have depended on the fishery for millennia,” said Chris Wood, president and CEO of Trout Unlimited. “It is the right thing to do for the 17,000 family wage jobs that the $1.6 billion commercial fishery provides. It is the right thing to do for a place that provides half of all of the world’s wild sockeye salmon. Congratulations to the EPA for making the right call and to the thousands of people who fought tirelessly to protect Bristol Bay.”
READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE: http://www.savebristolbay.org/in-the-news/2021/9/9/epa-announces-reinstatement-of-clean-water-act-protections-for-bristol-bay-alaska-watershed
Alaska Select's Jenna Talbott on board the f/v Thunder