Copper River’s high salmon prices hold valuable lesson for Bristol Bay

GLEN ALSWORTH SR.

March 13, 2008 at 2:23PM AKST

For Alaska Newspapers

The Prince William Sound produces the highest prices per pound for sockeye salmon, with Copper River reds fetching upwards of an excess of $12 per pound for the early run.

The bottom of the per pound values for sockeye come from Bristol Bay.

While there are experts who can undoubtedly explain variations for market access, quality, availability and a myriad of other factors, I want to raise the question of how the salmon prices may be affected by the development of oil and gas, mining, industrialization and urban sprawl.

There has been fear cast on Bristol Bay fisherman by the specter of development as a death knell for all Bristol Bay fisheries. While we must be extremely careful and be most diligent in our application of the best science to protect and enhance opportunities for subsistence, sport and commercial fisher people, we need not paralyze our economy by preventing responsible development.

This is being attempted by attempting to enact legislation to pre-empt the existing stringent and rigorous requirements of the environmental impact statement and state and federal water quality laws, in favor of a political solution to a perceived problem, which may not be a problem at all.

Let me digress.

The prized and valuable Copper River Reds are gathering back to a river called the Copper River, because it drains from the headwaters of the famed Kennecott Copper Mine.

The mine produced copper and other minerals for a 27-year period, ending in 1938.

Additionally, in 1989, the Exxon Valdez dumped crude oil in the Prince William Sound. It was the largest oiling of the marine landscape in Alaska history. Reportedly, oil is still buried in the gravel of the beaches, within reach of anyone who cares to dig a little.

Yet in spite of an old mine at its headwaters and the oiled Prince William Sound, Copper River reds remain at the top of the value totem pole for Alaska sockeye.

The sockeye holding the No. 2 price spot on the value per pound list belongs to Cook Inlet.

Again, I would point out that more than half of the population of Alaska is located in the watersheds of Cook Inlet. At last count, 16 active oil and gas platforms are operating in the waters where the salmon come through, not to mention all the potential for pollution as a result of perhaps more then 350,000 people living there.

Where’s Bristol Bay’s spot? It is last in value of sockeye per pound.

But how can this be? We are the last pristine place on earth. Bristol Bay represents all that wild, pure, untarnished, natural, organic, delicious sockeye salmon stand for.

Now before you jump to the erroneous conclusion that all Bristol Bay needs is a large mine at its headwaters, like the Copper River, and a vigorous oil and gas development, like Cook Inlet, to bolster its value of sockeye salmon.

What these prices demonstrate is that perhaps the headwater arguments and the no-development arguments are a little overstated.

These people say it would be devastating to our region and fisheries, however the evidence entertains the idea that our resources, like mining, could actually be used in cooperation with the enhancement of our fishing economies: subsistence, sport and commercial.

Glen Alsworth Sr. is the mayor of the Lake and Peninsula Borough. He can be reached at (907) 781-2212.