ComFish Holds Discussions on Pebble, OCS Lease Sale Proposals

By Margaret Bauman, Alaska Journal of Commerce, Anchorage

Apr. 6–KODIAK — To executive chef Jack Amon of the upscale Marx Bros. Caf? in Anchorage, a wild Alaska salmon is much more than a fish; it is solid gold to the Alaska economy.

The salmon, coupled with the pristine environment of the state’s waters, is worth $200 million a year statewide to the Alaska economy in terms of payroll and direct spending, Amon told participants attending ComFish Alaska, held March 20-22 in Kodiak.

Beyond the commercial fisheries, including the world famous sockeye salmon run to Bristol Bay, there are the thousands of dollars spent by sport hunters and anglers and others who come to enjoy Alaska’s pristine ecosystem, he said.

Damage to that ecosystem would bring economic havoc, not only to the commercial and sport fisheries, but to the good name of all of Alaska’s seafood, he said.

“You want the message to be ?if it comes from Alaska, it’s good’(seafood),’” he said. “If something messes that up, it affects every bit of seafood in Alaska.”

Amon was one of a cross section of speakers at three ComFish forums devoted to discussions regarding proposed mining and oil and gas development in the Bristol Bay area.

Two of the forums were specific to the proposed Pebble mine, located at the headwaters of the area watershed. The other focused on the proposed offshore North Aleutian Basin federal oil and gas lease sales, tentatively scheduled for 2011.

Representatives of the Pebble Partnership, which proposes to mine in Southwest Alaska, as well as Shell Oil, which is interested in offshore exploration and development in the North Aleutian Basin, have said their plans for development include protecting the environment.

The Pebble Partnership has held meetings with representatives of local and tribal governments, as well as nonprofit local and regional groups to discuss plans and resolve issues that may be presented, from economic to environmental.

Speaking from his experience in the culinary industry, Amon said that the average consumer does not differentiate between troll-caught salmon from Southeast Alaska or sockeyes caught in Bristol Bay. While Alaskans may be able to differentiate between Copper River reds and other salmon, others, including vacationing sport hunters and fishermen, would not necessarily realize that a problem with one fishery did not affect all of the fisheries in Alaska, he said.

This could result not only in loss of sales of commercially caught fish, but potential visitors, and sales of Alaskan caught seafood in restaurants, he said. That includes visitors making travel connections through Anchorage, who dine at Marx Bros., he said.

His point, Amon said, is the critical importance of a pristine image for Alaska’s wild seafood. “If we get a reputation as a toxic environment, we’re doomed,” he said.

A key question being debated on both the Pebble project and oil and gas development off the North Aleutian Basin is whether such projects can be developed in harmony with the existing fisheries.

The first of the three sessions was a discussion with representatives of the Pebble Partnership, including director of public relations Sean Magee and Anglo American representative Paul Henry. The partnership, which plans to spend approximately $125 million on exploration in Southwest Alaska in 2008, represents Northern Dynasty Minerals, of Vancouver, British Columbia, and Anglo American, an international mining corporation headquartered in London.

Magee, who has presented the partnership’s case to numerous groups in Alaska, said that sustaining the region’s fisheries were a top priority. He also noted, as announced earlier, that the partnership plans to invest $5 million in the Pebble Fund, through the independent nonprofit Alaska Community Foundation, in support of a sustainable economy for the region.

Northern Dynasty had a meeting with Bristol Bay community leaders in Anchorage in early March and another session was planned for late March, to select the advisory board for the Pebble Fund. Magee said the partnership is paying all expenses, plus a $200 a day honorarium to all participants.

The partnership also had thick packets available for ComFish participants outlining its view that the mine could be developed in a manner that would not harm fisheries.

Opponents of the Pebble project have been critical of the mining industry’s track record on a number of issues, including environmental pollution. They presented their own case, with a group that included Amon as well as former federal fisheries biologist Carol Ann Woody of Anchorage.

A third session was devoted to a summing up of a two-day North Aleutian Basin energy and fisheries forum held earlier in the week in Anchorage. Presenters included Brian Allee, director of the University of Alaska Sea Grant program, Dan Sharp of the federal Minerals Management Service, Gregg Nady of Shell Oil, and David Holt, an organizer for the energy-fisheries workshop.

Assuming that the lease sale is held, and that Shell had the winning bids on leases and significant amounts of natural gas is found, there would be a few Shell platforms in the North Aleutian Basin and likely a liquid natural gas plant developed on the south side of the Alaska Peninsula, Nady said.

Nady estimated that would result in some 650 long-term jobs over the life of the development, in work ranging from platform maintenance to marine mammal observers, and that Shell does do a lot of local hire.

Nady also noted that University of Alaska researchers said that for every industry job, there are some six to eight other jobs in related support services.

The Anchorage workshop was financed through contributions of $25,000 from Shell Oil, $20,000 from the University of Alaska, and smaller contributions from the federal Minerals Management Service, Peter Pan Seafoods, Bristol Bay Native Corp., the Aleutians East Borough, At-sea Processors Association, North Pacific Fishery Management Council, United Fishermen of Alaska and the Alaska Crab Coalition.

The Alaska Marine Conservation Council provided ComFish participants with a flyer arguing against offshore oil and gas drilling in Bristol Bay. The flyer noted that the Bering Sea ecosystem is already under stress from climate change, and that federal studies suggest offshore oil and gas production in the bay could result in major oil spills.

AMCC argued that offshore drilling in the bay would further threaten a number of endangered species, including the endangered North Pacific right whale, whose population is estimated to number less than 100 individual whales.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.

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