AK-UK Connections

To get to London from Alaska you literally have to travel nearly a quarter of the way around the world and through nine time zones, unless you fly over the pole, which shortens the trip, a tad.

London is over 7,500 km from Dillingham, Alaska, the most populated place in Bristol Bay with a whopping 2,600 residents. A square kilometer in London contains almost 5,000 people; in Dillingham the number is about 25.

Bristol Bay residents say grizzlies outnumber people 2 to 1, and while it’s hard to count bears, they may not be exaggerating. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game estimates that one third of the state’s brown bears roam the Bristol Bay region. ¹

Despite the daunting distance, the ties between the UK and Alaska are strong.

The Salmon Connection: From Alaska to your dinner table

The UK is the world's largest importer of canned sockeye, which comes predominantly from Bristol Bay. More than 170 million pounds of salmon – most of it tasty, red sockeye – were pulled from its waters last summer (2008)².

The strong, healthy runs of salmon, all five species of which return to the rivers of the Bristol Bay watershed, are in marked contrast to those of England and Wales. The numbers of returning fish in England and Wales are estimated to have declined by around 55 percent between the early 1970s and the present time.

Anglo American: The Pebble mine connection

Several of the world’s largest mining corporations are headquartered in London. One of them, Anglo American, is a 50 percent partner with Vancouver, B.C.-based Northern Dynasty Minerals in the proposed Pebble mine, which would sit in the middle of the headwaters of the biggest, most productive salmon spawning rivers in the Bristol Bay region of southwest Alaska.

Anglo American holds its annual shareholders meeting in London on April 15, 2009. A delegation of local Alaskans, opposed the mine because of the threat it poses to their traditional and subsistence way of life, is coming as shareholders to attend the meeting.

The Angler Connection

The Bristol Bay watershed is paradise for sportsmen, supporting the world’s largest runs of wild salmon, trophy rainbow trout, brown bears, caribou, and a strong commercial and sport-fishing economy. An estimated 13,000 sport anglers, including UK residents, come to the area each year, all of it during the four-month summer season.

Several of England’s most well-known and admired anglers have a deep affinity for the wild fisheries of Alaska.

“UK anglers see Alaska as the great untouched wilderness and to many it is the ’once in a lifetime‘ dream to fish its pristine waters,” said Peter Cockwill of Albury Game Angling in Surrey, who has been guiding anglers in Alaska for 21 years. “The UK is an overcrowded land with precious few places where wild bred fish survive and much of this is only by careful habitat management. It's nevertheless wonderful but cannot compare to Alaska's wealth of species and its sheer magnitude of numbers which can only serve to show us how it once was here in England.”

Nearly 200 leading companies in the fly fishing industry, including Albury Game Angling and Farlow’s, and others based in the UK, have rallied to engage in the campaign to protect habitat in Bristol Bay. Ads like this one, designed by the Sportsman’s Alliance for Alaska, have been running in major fly fishing publications since 2007.

Angling Companies in the UK Opposing the Pebble mine:

• Hardy & Greys, Ltd.
• Fish & Fly, Ltd.
• Angling International
• European Fishing Tackle Trade Association
• Richard Wheatley, Ltd.
• H. Turrall & Co.
• Dragon Tackle International
• Aardvark McLeod
• Bauer Active
• Roxton's
• Albury Game Angling
• Farlow's of Pall Mall
• The Orvis Company
• Wild Trout Trust
• The Angling Trust
• Emap Angling
• The Source 4

References

¹Alaska Department of Fish and Game: Brown Bear, http://www.adfg.state.ak.us/pubs/notebook/biggame/brnbear.php

²Alaska Department of Fish and Game: News Release 2008 Bristol Bay Salmon Season Summary, 9/22/08