America’s fly fishing community has come together in a unique way to fight plans which could destroy all aquatic life in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska and wipe out the largest sockeye salmon run in the world.
Businesses, industry professionals and the wider community united one day in August to raise awareness of – and funds to fight – a mineral exploration project, which would hit the fishery, said to be worth $1.5 billion to the economy and sustains 14,000 jobs.
Pebble Mine is a scheme investigating a very large copper, gold, and molybdenum mineral deposit in the Bristol Bay region of southwest Alaska, and the large-scale proposal is severely controversial among many environmental groups and angling communities because of the impact it would have on a world-class fly fishing destination.
The American Fly Fishing Trade Association (AFFTA) rallied its troops and helped organised A Day For Bristol Bay (D4BB) to support the Bristol Bay Defence Fund, a front line group lobbying in Washington D.C against the mine’s approval.
The day was promoted through the AFTTA website and raised $100,000 for the fund, with donations from retailers, manufacturers and the public and it will support a team of lawyers, scientists, government affairs specialist and experts in the federal permitting process.
The project was originally halted back in 2014, under the Obama administration, when an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study found that it would cause “complete loss of fish habitat due to elimination, dewatering, and fragmentation of streams, wetlands, and other aquatic resources” in some areas of Bristol Bay.
Read the complete article here: https://www.tackletradeworld.com/tackle-firms-rally-to-save-world-class-fishery-from-destruction/.
Also look at:
http://flyfishing-blog.com/flyfishing-blog.com/2019/07/25/rally-time-join-us-august-24th-for-a-day-for-bristol-bay/
http://flyfishing-blog.com/flyfishing-blog.com/2019/06/30/bristol-bay-needs-your-voice-today-more-than-ever/
http://flyfishing-blog.com/flyfishing-blog.com/2019/06/21/make-your-voice-heard-save-bristol-bay/