With the famed Copper River salmon season set to begin in about two weeks, Cordova, Alaska, is wrestling with how to prepare for the influx of seasonal workers who are planning to travel to the city.
According to the Anchorage Daily News, more than 400 of the town’s 2,500 residents have signed a petition asking Mayor Clay Koplin to restrict non-essential travel into Cordova. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game manages the Copper River fishery and any changes to the season itself would be directed by the state.
“We’re trying to strike a balance,” Koplin said. "[But] we’ll close airports and stop the fishing season in a heartbeat if that’s what will keep people safe.”
“It’s not going to be business as usual,” he added.
In response to the growing crisis, activists have created the website Keep Cordova Safe, which aims to curtail the movement of seasonal workers to the city.
“I do not believe there is a way to safely triple the size of the population without significant morbidity and mortality to the people in Cordova from the COVID-19 virus,” local physician Hannah Sanders wrote on the site.
“I think we’re the lab rats for the state,” Native Village of Eyak tribal council member Raven Cunningham told the Anchorage Daily News. “Our fishery is the first one. Everyone is looking at us to see what we’re doing.”
Alaska is already requiring any fishery workers arriving in the state to self-quarantine for 14 days.
Cordova’s struggle with how to manage the season comes at the same time that pressure has been put on Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy to close the Bristol Bay commercial salmon fishery. Last week, the city of Dillingham and tribal leaders asked Dunleavy to consider closing Bristol Bay, the world’s most valuable sockeye salmon fishery.
Over the weekend, three more Native American tribes appealed to Dunleavy to either close the fishery or put extreme protective measures in place, according to KTOO.
“The tribal organizations of Naknek, King Salmon, and South Naknek consider this pandemic to be of utmost importance. Our people, and our culture are at risk,” the tribes said. The letter to the governor noted that there is no hospital in the Bristol Bay Borough and there are “extremely limited medical resources and infrastructure” in the region.
The concern in both Dillingham and Cordova is that the unprepared healthcare systems in such small towns coupled with the close quarters which are shared by seasonal workers could make for a disaster in the event of a severe outbreak. Dillingham has a 16-bed hospital and Cordova has a hospital without any ICU beds.
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