Ketchikan, Alaska – The Bristol Bay, Alaska commercial salmon fishery is the world's most valuable wild salmon fishery and in total produces an astounding annual value of $1.5 billion, according to a new report, "The Economic Importance of the Bristol Bay Salmon Industry."
The fishery supports a significant number of jobs in the four West Coast states, Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California, and the total value of Bristol Bay salmon product exports in 2010 was about $370 million, accounting for nearly 20% of the total value of all US seafood exports. Written by researchers at the University of Alaska's Institute for Social and Economic Research, the report marks the first time the full value and impact of the Bristol Bay salmon fishery has been measured.
The report was released during a phone conference on May 9 that included Deadliest Catch Captain Johnathan Hillstrand , who said: "For everyone who counts on the salmon industry to make a living, the Pebble project is the Deadliest Mine. The only people who want this mine don't live in Alaska or even the United States. They're foreign mining companies that want to sell gold and copper to the Chinese."
The report comes at the same time the EPA is conducting a comment period of its revised Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment, a scientific report that shows that digging up the proposed Pebble mine will destroy up to 90 miles of salmon streams and up to 4,800 acres of wetlands in the best case scenario, without potential leaks or a catastrophic failure.
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