As someone who attended both of President Obama's inaugurations in person and a former intern for his environmental initiatives in DC, I'm excited to welcome him to my hometown. Here is an interview I did with KTVA-Anchorage last night explaining why I and others in Bristol Bay are so excited for his visit! Follow my Twitter: @SenatorSalmon
http://www.ktva.com/dillingham-waiting-to-welcome-obama-to-salmon-country-606/
Senator Salmon
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Obama’s Visit to My Alaskan Hometown Will Highlight Environmental Struggles of America's Fishbasket Bristol Bay
Today President Obama is coming to my rural, remote hometown
of approximately 2,000 people: Dillingham in Bristol Bay, Alaska. Follow me on my new Twitter account: www.twitter.com/SenatorSalmon to see the latest. You may have heard of Bristol Bay. Sarah Palin’s
family goes salmon fishing here.
Discovery Channel’s show ‘Deadliest Catch’ fishes here too. It’s a magnificent region that the President called a ‘National Treasure.’ And rightly so: this summer Bristol Bay had a record
run of over 50 million wild sockeye salmon coming to our clear, clean rivers
and lakes that dot the region. My family
just got done catching a lot of salmon not only for our cash income, but to put
food on the table. The bay is also home
to a $2 billion a year fisheries for what my former employer World Wildlife
Fund calls ‘America’s Fishbasket.’ The
region’s abundant crab, halibut, salmon, herring, pollock and other fisheries
provide our nation some of the best wild fish the world has to offer. These fisheries are a renewable, sustainable resource
that provides thousands of jobs to Americans throughout the nation. It also provides millions of dollars in
government revenues. Nutritionists and
medical professional say the fish are good for your health if you eat them
regularly. They will benefit America year after year, if we choose to take care
of them.
The President is coming for good reasons. Bristol Bay faces
many environmental challenges that strike the heart of not only us in the
region, but across America and throughout the world. I’m thankful the President has done a great
job in trying to confront these challenges.
They include fighting climate change, which is affecting the
polar-regions such as Arctic Alaska more drastically than anywhere else in the
world. It also includes the proposed
Pebble Mine, which would be one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines at
the heart of our salmon spawning grounds.
Further, it includes proposed offshore drilling in the Bering Sea. Luckily President Obama already used his presidential
privilege to place Bristol Bay under permanent protections against this risky
proposal. We’ve seen how oil spills such
as the Exxon Valdez and the 2010 Gulf Macondo disaster can damage fisheries and
livelihoods.
Throughout the world’s oceans, fisheries are in decline
because of habitat destruction, overfishing and other factors such as climate
change. A mixture of ocean acidification
from increased greenhouse gas emissions, proposed mining across the region and
other factors such as fisheries bycatch would put a strain on America’s Fishbasket
in Bristol Bay. The President is coming
to the region to shine a light for us: his administration has time and again
shown their dedication to conserve what the bay has to offer. For example, EPA has taken a very rare step
under the Clean Water Act to stop the proposed Pebble Mine that would pollute
our region with billions of tons of mine waste.
They have also aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through their
Clean Power Plan, which will help to reduce the impacts of ocean acidification
and climate change that hurt fisheries and wildlife.
I’m very thankful that the President is not only visiting
Alaska, but also my hometown. His dedication to preserving our environment, as
well as our tribe’s cultural traditions that have been sustained for millennia,
will likely win accolades by locals during his visit. If you support us, please contact your U.S.
Senator and Representative to support President Obama’s initiatives in Bristol
Bay. Some members of Congress are
attacking EPA and President Obama’s good work to combat Pebble Mine and climate
change through legislative action. If
you do, you will help preserve his legacy in the region, and say that you’ve
done your part to protect America’s greatest wild fisheries in Bristol Bay,
Alaska for future generations.
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