About Bristol Bay
The Bristol Bay region in southwest Alaska is a pristine wilderness stretching from the rugged, snow-capped peaks of the Alaska Range across tundra and wetlands laced with rivers that flow into the bay, providing the best wild salmon habitat anywhere on Earth.
Tens of millions of salmon return to spawn in the bay’s drainages each year making it the richest commercial wild salmon fishery in the world. In addition to sockeye, the most abundant, there are stunning runs of King salmon plus trophy rainbow trout and the full array of Arctic wildlife from caribou and ptarmigan to moose, wolves and grizzlies, which local residents suggest outnumber them 2 to 1.
More than anything else, Bristol Bay is about salmon, on which everything - communities, jobs, and the health of the entire ecosystem from grizzlies on down the food chain - depend. Salmon support thriving commercial and sport fishing industries as well as traditional subsistence ways of life.
Yet plans for large-scale mineral development, such as the Pebble gold and copper mine in the headwaters of the bay¹s best wild salmon rivers, could change this place forever.
Ask the EPA to protect Bristol Bay from mine waste! Send a letter to urge EPA to protect the world's greatest remaining salmon fishery!
