Bill filed to protect salmon fishing in Bristol Bay, Alaska

April 19, 2007

Washington, D.C. - Lawmakers have filed a bill to reinstate the ban on offshore oil and gas drilling in Bristol Bay, Alaska.

Press Release - U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), Wayne T. Gilchrest (R-Md.) and Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) today introduced legislation aimed at protecting Alaska's salmon-rich Bristol Bay.

Their Bristol Bay Protection Act would reinstate a moratorium on oil and gas drilling in Alaska's North Aleutian Basin. The area was protected from offshore exploration since shortly after the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster until President Bush lifted the ban in January. The federal Minerals Management Service has included Bristol Bay in its five-year plan for opening the Outer Continental Shelf to oil and gas development.

"Drilling in Bristol Bay poses too great of an environmental and economic risk," said Inslee, who serves on the House Natural Resources Committee and hails from Washington, a state that trails only Alaska in the number of salmon permit holders in the region. "This ecologically important area is home to several endangered species and fisheries that supply 40 percent of our nation's seafood catch."

"Drilling for oil and gas in Bristol Bay would have devastating consequences not only on the North Pacific right whale and the diverse array of fish, birds, and other wildlife to which the bay is home, but to the area's economy," added Hinchey. "The Interior Department's own economic projections make it clear that oil and gas drilling in Bristol Bay would only bring in a fraction of the $2 billion a year currently generated from the bay's fisheries. The need for oil and gas drilling in Bristol Bay simply doesn't exist. The time is well overdue for the United States to start investing significantly in alternative energy sources rather than always resorting to drilling, which is a short-sighted approach that often has horrific impacts on the environment."

The sub-arctic waters of Alaska's Bristol Bay and the southeastern Bering Sea constitute one of the most productive marine ecosystems in the world. The area targeted for oil and gas leasing overlaps with important habitat for pollock, cod, red king crab, halibut and salmon, as well as waterfowl, shorebirds and marine mammals.

"The Bristol Bay Permanent Protection Act will ensure that the wild sockeye salmon, endangered marine mammals, fragile wetlands and spectacular estuaries of this natural wonderland will be protected for generations to come," said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife.