A handful of celebrity chefs are calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to protect Bristol Bay and the region’s salmon fisheries by opposing Pebble Mine, a proposed mineral exploration project in southwest Alaska.
Nearly 200 individuals — including chefs Tom Colicchio, Alice Waters, Mark Bittman, Barton Seaver, Nora Pouillon and Todd Gray — on Tuesday sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, urging her to use the agency’s authority under the Clean Water Act to protect Bristol Bay’s public waters from large-scale mining activity.
Also on Tuesday, the chefs kicked off the week-long Save Bristol Bay Week at Equinox Restaurant in Washington, D.C. As part of the campaign, more than 20 Washington, D.C.-area restaurants are menuing Bristol Bay salmon.
Additionally, Alaska Natives, commercial and recreational fishermen and hunters are meeting with legislators and agency staff in Washington, D.C., this week to ask for protection of Bristol Bay.
“A huge open-pit mine in the Bristol Bay region could eliminate a source of healthy, sustainable fish from our menus,” said Todd Gray, chef and co-owner of Equinox.
Last year, Bristol Bay’s salmon fisheries yielded more than 31 million fish, including more than 28 million sockeye, valued at USD 153 million, according to the Alaska Department of Fish & Game. Bristol Bay is the world’s single largest sockeye fishery.
