Dillingham, Sends Strong Message to Anglo-American Chair:
“Fishing - not mining - our future”
Contacts:
Frank Woods, 907-842-2952
Kim Williams, 907-842-2521
Stacy Rolf, 907-842- 3676
Photographs at: http://picasaweb.google.com/bristolbay.wild/
March 28, 2009 – Dillingham, Alaska: Nearly one hundred residents of the Bristol Bay community of Dillingham braved freezing conditions on Saturday to rally outside an invitation-only meeting hosted by Anglo-American Chairman of the Board Sir Mark Moody-Stuart. Participants were eventually allowed inside for a question and answer session. Sir Mark and other Pebble representatives faced tough questions from the crowd at the UAF Dillingham campus.
Residents of Dillingham, including members of Rebels to the Pebble, a student group formed to oppose the mine, gathered outside the meeting showing their support for the protection of the region’s fisheries with protest signs, reading: “Fishing is Forever,” “No Pebble Mine,” and “Be a Rebel to the Pebble” while vocalizing their concerns about Anglo-American’s world-wide activities.
Once they were allowed to join the meeting, residents donning bunny-boots, fur hats, and snow gear grilled Sir Mark and other Anglo executives on their plans for the proposed mine. After three hours of discussion, most residents left the meeting with more questions than answers. Many concerns were met with the response, “we’ll have an answer for that once we have a mine plan.”
“Anglo-American spoke about sustainable mining practices, but salmon are a sustainable natural resource. Mining will never be,” stated local commercial and subsistence fishermen Frank Woods at the rally. “The only thing sustainable about Pebble is the contamination it will leave behind…forever!”
The proposed Pebble Mine is a massive copper and gold mine located in the headwaters of the Bristol Bay watershed. The project is highly controversial due to the risk of chronic and catastrophic contamination of the world’s greatest sockeye salmon run. Every year, millions of sockeye return to the three rivers threatened by the Pebble proposal, supporting commercial, sport, and subsistence fisheries.
The London-based Anglo American, the largest investor in the Pebble project, has a long history of destructive mining projects with dramatic impacts on indigenous cultures around the world.
Dillingham, population 2,347, is a largely Yup’ik community located on the Nushagak River, 150 air miles downriver from the Pebble prospect. The community is homeport to much of the commercial sockeye salmon fleet every summer. Dillingham acts as a hub for several villages around the region, all of which depend on subsistence resources. Dozens of sport-fishing lodges in the region also rely on Bristol Bay’s salmon and world-class trout to sustain themselves.
“Salmon are the backbone of the entire ecosystem that sustains our people. We have the responsibility to ensure that this resource is there for future generations,” stated Kim Williams of Dillingham. “This mine poses too much risk.”
“Destruction of the fishery is taking something that we rely on every single day,” stated Rebels to the Pebble member Stacey Rolf, a Dillingham High School student. “Our lives wouldn’t be the same.”
