Protecting Alaska's Cook Inlet watershed and the life it sustains since 1995.
The Regulatory Commission of Alaska has extended public comment on proposals to transfer BP pipelines – including BP’s interests in the Trans Alaska Pipeline (TAPs) to Hilcorps. While BP and Hilcorp have negotiated this deal for more than a year, the RCA has made an inadequate effort to engage Alaskans to review and comment on […]
In the 1960’s and 1970’s, Americans joined together to secure some of the best air, land and water protections in the world. Then the pendulum started to swing back, with billions of dollars from corporations, think tanks and phony “astroturf” groups pushing an aggressive anti-consumer, anti-environment agenda. Today, from Koch Industries to Exxon, and from […]
Hilcorp’s seismic air gun blasting program started in full force this past weekend, with the seismic vessel Polarcus Alima running transects across some of the most important fish and whale habitat in Lower Cook Inlet. You can get an update on Hilcorp’s daily seismic blasting plans here, and you can call-in every morning at 10:00 […]
As fishermen left the Homer Harbor Monday morning (September 9) to longline halibut in Lower Cook Inlet, the 273’ seismic vessel Polarcus Alima darkened the horizon in Kachemak Bay. The vessel had turned off its AIS vessel tracking system after leaving Japan last week, but local fishermen and whale scientists quickly spotted the giant vessel […]
ANCHORAGE— Conservation groups filed a lawsuit today challenging the Trump administration’s approval of rules allowing Hilcorp Alaska LLC to harm Cook Inlet beluga whales and other marine mammals as it expands its offshore oil and gas operations in Cook Inlet. Cook Inletkeeper and the Center for Biological Diversity sued the National Marine Fisheries Service in […]
Seismic air guns used for oil and gas exploration produce the loudest underwater noise next to explosions and warfare, and they can have devastating impacts on marine life. As a fisherman from Newfoundland put it, “Whenever a seismic boat goes past and we drop our gear, the fish aren’t there. Any fisherman, or fisherman worth […]
Pebble Mine, Brown Bears & the Climate Crisis For the past year, Inletkeeper has been studying the brown bears in Lower Cook Inlet, to understand the potential impacts on bears and the bear viewing industry from the proposed transportation corridor and export terminal from the Pebble Mine. Lower Cook Inlet boasts the highest concentration of […]
Climate Crisis Sends Stream Temperatures Off the Charts As Alaskans suffer through the smoke, haze and danger of a record-breaking heat wave, Alaska’s salmon are suffering too. On July 7th, stream temperatures topped 81.7 F (27.6 C) in the Deshka River, a major salmon stream on the west side of Cook Inlet in the Mat […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 19, 2019 House of Representatives Vote to Block Funding for Pebble Mine.Representative Don Young wants to “Look at the Science.” Homer, AK – Today, the House of Representatives passed amendment 90, “The Huffman Amendment” to the Energy and Water Appropriations Act (H.R. 2740) bill to suspend funding for permitting the proposed […]
Cook Inletkeeper today called-out the Dunleavy Administration for weakening a key Clean Water Act permit that will allow the oil and gas industry to increase toxic dumping in prime salmon, halibut, and beluga whale habitat. The proposed permit covers oil and gas production wastes from offshore platforms and other facilities in Cook Inlet. [Read comments […]
New study shows bear viewing industry supports nearly 500 jobs and more than $34 million in sales annually See Report Summary here & Full Report here. We’re getting tired talking about what a stupid idea it is to put a giant, toxic hole in the headwaters of the world’s greatest sockeye fishery. We’ve grown uncomfortably […]
Court Dismisses Pebble’s Bogus Effort to Silence Fishermen Dunleavy Administration Wastes State Money on Frivolous Lawsuit In April we wrote about Pebble’s ham-fisted attempts to silence Bristol Bay fishermen with a frivolous lawsuit (see below). Today, the Alaska Superior Court agreed that Pebble’s lawsuit had absolutely no merit, and it dismissed the case. If you’ve […]
If you’re a semi-conscious Alaskan, you probably know by now the billionaire Koch brothers have their hands around the throat of democracy in the Last Frontier. You may recall how the Koch Brother’s front groups – the Alaska Policy Forum, Power the Future, and Americans for Prosperity- Alaska Chapter – waged an out-and-out war to […]
Featured photo: Michael Melford The Army Corps of Engineers began their public hearings in Naknek, AK on Monday for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement regarding the proposed Pebble Mine Plan. At the same time that residents from rural Alaska make arrangements to speak out at these public hearings, our State Legislature in Juneau is proceeding […]
< Submit your Public Comment online here > When I interviewed for my job with Cook Inletkeeper in 1995, the hiring committee handed me a draft Clean Water Act permit for oil and gas discharges in Cook Inlet, and asked me how I would change it to reduce pollution. Twenty four years later I still […]
Since Pebble reared its head more than 15 years ago, its supporters have told many lies.
The proposed Pebble mine in southwest Alaska stands out for a variety reasons, including the fact it would be the first large-scale, open pit mine in the headwaters of the Bristol Bay – the richest sockeye salmon fishery in the world. But with the recent release of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the […]
Act NOW to Protect Salmon Habitat – Comments Due March 22 BACKGROUND: The proposed Donlin mine along the banks of the Kuskokwim River in southwest Alaska would be a massive open gold mine. To power the facility, Donlin plans a 315 mile-long natural gas pipeline from Cook Inlet through the Skwentna, Yentna and Kuskokwim drainages. […]
I attended a presentation this week in Homer by Mark Hamilton, Vice President of External Affairs and mouthpiece for the Pebble mine, and it was remarkable on a couple fronts. First, the tone. Hamilton spoke down to the crowd like a seasoned used car salesman, highlighting only the possible benefits of the Pebble Mine, and […]
Written by Sue Mauger, Science Director We live in, play around and benefit from a salmon landscape. Wild salmon unite and define us as Alaskans. We pride ourselves in living differently up here, but we are making the same mistakes that others made across the world when they chose incompatible development over salmon. Stand for […]
I spent 38 yrs. managing fisheries from California to the Arctic, and I support Ballot Measure 1. My career included: Salmonid (salmon, steelhead, trout) management as a Pacific and North Pacific Fishery Management Council member; developing amendments to the Forest Practices Act; an advisor in US/Canada Salmon Treaty negotiations and implementation, and reviewer of funding […]
Today Cook Inletkeeper released a statement from 58 retired state and federal agency scientists and managers who strongly support the Stand for Salmon Ballot Measure 1. Taken together, these experts have more than 1500 years’ experience managing and overseeing salmon and salmon habitat In Alaska. “Exxon, Pebble and the other corporations are smothering Alaskans with […]
On the same day PFD dividends hit bank accounts this year, I thawed a filet of silver salmon from the Kenai River. I remember feeling so grateful with that particular fresh, beautiful fish in my hands this August. With the sockeye fishery closed just weeks before, I started to wonder what our freezer would look […]
Desperate times call for desperate measures. What else could explain the choice of Randy Bates – former ADFG Habitat Division Director – as a prominent spokesman in folksy TV and video ads for the corporate campaign against Alaska salmon? Inletkeeper had a front row seat for Mr. Bates’ government career, and what we saw explains […]
Calling a person or a group a liar is somewhat taboo, even in our evolving post-fact world, because the accusation is fairly serious. And of course the main difference between a flat out lie and garden variety misinformation comes down to intent: did the speaker know what he or she was saying was untrue, yet […]
In the lead-up to the long holiday weekend, when Alaskans were distracted with camping and hunting and fishing plans, the Walker Administration quietly issued two decisions which show exactly why we need to pass the Stand for Salmon Ballot Measure 1 to take politics out of our permitting system and to modernize our old, ineffective […]
ANCHORAGE— The Alaska Department of Natural Resources bowed to corporate pressure late yesterday evening, after the court ordered deadline, and rejected efforts by Alaskan citizens to protect wild salmon in the Chuitna River watershed on the west side of Cook Inlet. “It’s been 9 years since we filed papers to reserve enough water in Middle […]
Did you know that in the Cook Inlet, oil & gas operators can legally dump toxic waste into coastal fisheries? That’s right – Oil & gas corporations are allowed to dump over 100,000 gallons of oil and grease and over 835,000 pounds of metals such as mercury, nickel, copper, manganese and zinc into the Cook […]
Today, the Alaska Supreme Court struck an important provision from the Stand for Salmon Ballot Initiative. It ruled the initiative’s ban on “substantial damage” – including permanent harm to salmon habitat – violated the Alaska Constitution because it amounted to an “appropriation” which impermissibly limited the Legislature’s discretion to make public resource decisions. The Court […]
In March, Cook Inletkeeper’s Central Peninsula team had the opportunity to travel to Juneau along with three Alaskan fisherpoets to meet with our elected officials. Here are reflections on the trip from two fisherpoets, both lifelong Alaskans who made the trip to Juneau for the first time. Commercial fishing in with my father in Cook […]
re·dux: /rēˈdəks,ˈrēˈdəks/adjective, brought back; revived. Late last year one of Cook Inletkeeper’s keen-eyed Boardmembers sent me an obscure public notice for exploration work around Amakdedori Creek in Kamishak Bay on the west side of Lower Cook Inlet. The project didn’t entail oil and gas exploration, so it was unclear who would be poking around Kamishak […]
Most working Alaskans consider $500,000 to be a lot of money. And of course, it is. But not when you’re a giant multinational oil company. British Petroleum recently dropped $500,000 to try to stop the Stand for Salmon ballot initiative, which would update Alaska’s 60-year-old, one-sentence-long salmon habitat protection law. To put that into context, however, […]
Since day one, your opposition to the Pebble open pit mine in the headwaters of the richest sockeye fishery in the world has run strong. You showed up to public hearings, you wrote comments, you voted at the ballot box. The message was always clear: the risks are too high, our salmon systems are too […]
Your right as an Alaskan to wild, healthy salmon is under assault. These are strong words, and we don’t take them lightly. But the fact remains that large corporations are now woven into the very fabric of our government and our society, and their corporate DNA is manifesting itself in countless ways, big and small, […]
Recent filings with the Alaska Public Offices Commission reveal the many corporations and trade groups opposed to the Stand for Salmon Initiative, which is the ballot measure sponsored by Alaskans to update our 60-year old fish habitat laws. No one should be surprised our corporate “partners” oppose stronger safeguards for our salmon streams, because protecting […]
These Corporations Have Rigged the Salmon Protection System By Bob Shavelson, Advocacy Director I’ve been working on water quality and salmon habitat issues in Alaska for over 20 years. And over all this time, I’ve learned a few painful but obvious lessons. First, our governments have stopped trying to protect our fish habitat. Yes, we […]
The Mat-Su Basin Salmon Habitat Partnership held its 10th annual Salmon Science and Conservation Symposium this month in Palmer. Cook Inletkeeper’s Science Director had the honor of offering welcoming remarks to the crowd of salmon enthusiasts from local government, business, federally recognized tribes, scientists, nonprofits, subsistence fishery users, commercial fishing industry, sportfish groups and concerned […]
Our paper: “Summer temperature regimes in southcentral Alaska streams: watershed drivers of variation and potential implications for Pacific salmon” has just come out in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. We posed some specific questions: Which streams run hot? Which streams run cold? And does that change year to year? We also considered […]
Inspired by the Patagonia-sponsored film Damnation, the Susitna River Coalition decided to fund the creation of a film that told the story of the fight against the Susitna-Watana Hydroelectric Project. Thus Super Salmon was born, directed and created by Alaska filmmaker Ryan Peterson with the support of Patagonia. The film follows the incredible journey of […]
The Pebble Partnership has grabbed headlines recently by attacking an EPA scientist and claiming EPA somehow violated federal law by communicating with Alaskans. It’s all a phony story, of course, to pump up fear around the bogey man of “federal overreach.” But there’s a healthy dose of irony here, because while the Pebble people are […]
What’s Happening: The Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADFG) is revising the management plan for Kachemak Bay and Fox River Flats Critical Habitat Areas. This process is now in the “scoping phase,” which means ADFG is looking for the issues it should address in the management plan revision. Scoping comments are due November 4. […]
Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson had his first confirmation hearing for the Secretary of State position before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, January 11. Now it’s time to tell our Senators Lisa Murkowski & Dan Sullivan to oppose this reckless nomination. Alaskans have a long history with Exxon. More recently, we’ve learned Exxon […]
