New Seasons Market

We’re proud to offer sustainable wild Alaskan salmon out of Bristol Bay, home of the world's largest sockeye population, the largest king salmon run in Alaska and almost one-third of Alaska's salmon population.

Located along Alaska’s lush Togiak National Wildlife Preserve, Bristol Bay is the eastern-most arm of the Bering Sea. A combination of broad tidal rivers and steep cliffs crowned with greenery create a striking picture. There are few places left in the world as wild, as biologically productive and as remote as Bristol Bay in southwestern Alaska. The rivers and creeks of Bristol Bay
provide pristine spawning grounds for all five
species of wild Pacific salmon: king, coho,
sockeye, chum and pink.

Aside from a $2 billion fishing industry, Bristol Bay is known as the gateway to Katmai National Park and Preserve. According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, fish dependent on the health of rivers linked to Bristol Bay include all wild Pacific salmon species as well as rainbow trout, Arctic char, Arctic grayling, Northern pike, lake trout and several species of whitefish.

The region also supports healthy populations of moose, sea otters, seals and walruses, bears (grizzly, brown and black), beavers, wolverines, river otters, beluga and killer whales (Orca), bald eagles, caribou (the second and third largest herds in the state), the Alaskan mulchatna herd, wolves, waterfowl, migratory birds and is home to one of only two freshwater seal populations in the world. The region supports a number of other threatened and endangered species, including the highly endangered North Pacific Right Whale - there are estimated to be only a few hundred in existence.

A Changing Bristol Bay

The U.S. Department of the Interior recently announced plans to open the Bay up to drilling for oil and gas, and to allow plans to move forward for a two-mile-long open-pit copper and gold mine – the largest in North America. What’s at stake is a $2 billion fishing industry, 40 percent of our nation's wild domestic fish catch, and the survival of a region whose ecological diversity makes the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge pale in comparison.

Plans for the open-pit copper and gold mine show it would be 2-miles across and include a 1,600-foot dam on one end. (Copper released into the environment during this kind of mining interferes with the ability of salmon to return to the stream in which it was born, which means there is no next generation. This has the potential to affect millions of wild salmon that spawn in Bristol Bay’s river systems every year.) Cyanide - a potent fish killer - is being considered to leach out any possible gold.

The U.S. Department of the Interior anticipates that the mining operation, called "Pebble Mine," would produce three billion tons of waste and would include either a slurry pipe carrying ore concentrate into Bristol Bay’s tidewaters, or a 20-square-mile lagoon of waste. Operation of the massive mine project will require more power than is now consumed by all of Anchorage, Alaska’s 260,000 residents combined.

Then there is the domino effect of Pebble Mine. In the past few years, the U.S. Department of the Interior has accepted roughly 1,000-square-miles of mining claims in Alaska. The massive infrastructure created to serve Pebble Mine would enable those mining companies to act on those claims as well.

Salmon form the base of the wild Alaskan ecosystem and are a way of life in the Northwest. To us, preserving the diversity of life that resides in and around Bristol Bay is more valuable than oil, gas, copper and, yes, even gold.

Photos courtesy of Trout Unlimited; Photographer Ben Knight.

Organizations Working to Save Bristol Bay, Alaska

Alaska Marine Conservation Council - Members include fishermen, subsistence harvesters, marine scientists, small business owners, conservationists, families and others who care about Alaska’s oceans. Their site contains information dedicated to protecting Bristol Bay from offshore oil and gas development.

Alaksa Wilderness Recreation and Tourism Assocation - Read their opposition piece about Pebble Mine.

Bristol Bay Alliance - A coalition of fishers, businesses and residents who oppose Pebble Mine.

Bristol Bay Native Association - Organizing rallies and protests in opposition of Pebble Mine.

Pacific Environment - Bristol Bay Page- Protects life on the Pacifc Rim and opposes Pebble Mine.

Renewable Resources Coalition - An Alaskan nonprofit dedicated to preserving sport fishing and hunting in Alaska. They are working with other organizations to oppose Pebble Mine.

Salmon Nation - Detailed information on the plight of wild Northwest salmon.

Save Bristol Bay - A range of information on how Pebble Mine will affect Bristol Bay, Alaska.

Stop Pebble Mine - A group of Bristol Bay residents who oppose Pebble Mine.

Trout Unlimited - Since 1959, Trout Unlimited has worked to conserve, protect and restore North America’s coldwater fisheries and their watersheds.

West Coast Wild Salmon - Supplies New Seasons Market with wild salmon out of Bristol Bay, Alaska.

World Wildlife Fund - Working to stop plans to drill for oil and gas in Bristol Bay.