The World's Last Great Sockeye Salmon Fishery

[dogofwar]

Great Frontline episode on the battle in Alaska over whether to permit a giant copper mine near the world's last great Sockeye salmon fishery.

You can watch online here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/alaska-gold/

Matt

 

[mchambers]

My family went to the Katmai National Park in Alaska 4 years ago, and saw the salmon runs and the bears that feed on them. (That's where we took the picture I use as my avatar -- we weren't using zoom lenses.) It was one of the most amazing days of my life.

It's hard to imagine that we would take the risk of poisoning that amazing place for a copper mine.

 

[Hawkman2000]

Maybe we should start a petition on moveon.

 

[mchambers]

Bears Fishing for Salmon

As you can see, the water turns reddish-orange, because there are so many salmon.

The bears like to stand by the rapids and pick off the fish as they come through. Interestingly, they only grab female fish, and eat only the brains and roe.

A bear with an ungainly fishing technique

A bear with a fish, trying to keep her catch away from another bear

 

[dogofwar]

Good stuff, Matt!

Check out the video to the Frontline story I posted. I think its a pretty balanced piece and speaks to the challenges of balancing conservation and the needs of people.

Matt

 

[mchambers]

The WaPo is on a roll today, with articles on the mine:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/05/31/the-biggest-environmental-decision-facing-obama-youve-never-heard-of/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/alaskas-bristol-bay-mine-project-ground-zero-for-the-next-big-environmental-fight/2013/06/01/c4f528e6-ca00-11e2-9245-773c0123c027_story.html

 

[dogofwar]

Thanks for posting, Matt!

Matt