About Bristol Bay
Bristol Bay is a remote region of southwest Alaska, bordered on land by the Alaska Peninsula and on the water by the Bering Sea. It is a region teeming with wildlife, where the ecosystem is still healthy and intact, where pristine rivers run free from dams, where giant grizzly bears still teach their young how to fish for salmon and where native people still live a subsistence lifestyle, gathering what they need to survive from the land and sea around them.
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 Mary Olympic putting up fish Iguigig courtesy Ben Knight |
Largest Run of Sockeye on the Planet
Salmon hitting our net
Bristol Bay is also home to the largest run of sockeye salmon on the planet. In 2008, 42.5 million salmon returned to the Bay, of which, a whopping 40.4 million fish were sockeye. The ecological integrity of the area depends on healthy salmon returns, as does the local economy. The Bristol Bay commercial fishery is a 300-400 million dollar a year industry, employing thousands annually to effectively handle the onslaught of returning salmon.
A Sustainable Fishery
To ensure healthy, sustainable returns, the state of Alaska manages the fishery biologically. What that means is that teams of state-employed biologists monitor the salmon’s return, gauging escapement levels and comparing data with projected returns and preseason escapement goals. Fishermen are allowed to catch salmon only when the biologists are confident that in doing so, the resource does not suffer. By basing management decisions on biology, and not economics, the State ensures, or hopes to safeguard, the sustainability of this resource, and our way of life, for generation upon generation.
Finishing a long day
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Waiting for the next opener