Fishermen group has reminded Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar that there are local communities, fishermen and subsistence harvesters who are concerned about the proposed lease sales for oil and gas development in Bristol Bay and Arctic waters. Fisherman Alan Parks said he was working in the herring fishery in Prince William Sound more than 20 years ago when someone came by his boat and told him he may as well stop doing what he was doing because there was an oil rig on Bligh Reef.
It is noted that the Bristol Bay salmon run goes on right underneath those proposed drill sites, grey whales migrate through and the king crab and halibut nursery is in that area. It is said that king crab, red king crab fisheries are there and 250 local streams along beach the provide salmon for subsistence and commercial use in the area of Nelson Lagoon and Port Moller, False Pass and Unimak Island.
Lucas Strickland said he started fishing with his parents in Prince William Sound when he was about a year old. His parents owned a herring boat before the Exxon Valdez and the herring hasn’t come back since then. Strickland has set and drift netted in Bristol Bay for about nine years. Dan Strickland, who works for Alaska Marine Conservation Council, said he and his wife fished in Prince William Sound for many years and then switched to Bristol Bay where they set netted for years.
The seafood industry in Alaska is the largest provider of jobs in the state and provides jobs than oil and gas and mining industries combined. Experts said that even a drop will create problems to the ecosystem in the Arctic. One drop will create problems for the community in which we depend upon and the animals that migrate to the area. We are bowhead whale hunters.
While the Bristol Bay fishermen and Arctic subsistence users expressed their opposition to the development, not all residents of the area oppose the Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas leasing plan for 2010-2015. About two-dozen organizations — including several boroughs, cities and Native corporations — voiced support of development last week.
