On a recent visit back east I got a funny feeling from being so far from Northwest steelhead water. Let’s just call it “Spey Withdrawal” for now, but you all know what I mean when it’s been too long since swinging through your favorite run (we need a better name for it though, I’m open to any suggestions). Anyway, to temporarily relieve the symptoms of Spey Withdrawal I decided to visit a fly shop in of all places on Fifth Avenue in Downtown Manhattan. The Urban Angler is a superb shop with a great staff; I highly recommend it to anyone in the area. Upon exiting the elevator right onto the shop floor, the very first thing I saw was a “Save Bristol Bay” cap. “Red Gold” was all over the shop and the guys working there were well educated with what’s going on in southwest Alaska. I went in just to quench my thirst for fly-fishing and I left impressed at the fact that a shop in New York was so involved and knowledgeable with regards to saving Bristol Bay. It’s great to see what a widespread effect all of the conservation efforts have on something as important as this.

With that said, it amazes me that a few (but certainly not all) of the people right here in Seattle who desperately depend on this resource know very little about the subject. In light of Kevin Davis and Steelhead Diners’ campaign to get local restaurants actively participating in conserving the Bristol Bay fishery we thought about trying to get more of the Seattle food community aware and involved. EWA has been visiting local fishmarkets and have had some great responses from places like Seattle Fish Company in West Seattle (now advertising “Bristol Bay Sockeye” and educating their customers about the Pebble Mine) and Wild Salmon in the Fisherman’s Terminal. Hopefully we’ll have more markets and vendors on board shorltly and with their help maybe even the entire Seattle seafood industry doing more and actively participating in the fight for Bristol Bay. Thanks to those who are doing their share and spreading the word.

Written by: Ted McDermott

From the Seattle P.I. online:

Fight is on between pro-fish camp, mine defenders
By MARY PEMBERTON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The fight is on between backers of an Alaska mine being developed near the world’s most productive wild salmon streams and 13 Seattle restaurants.

This week, the establishments are featuring wild Alaska salmon on their menus, dished up with warnings about the future of Bristol Bay salmon if the copper, gold and molybdenum mine is permitted and built in southwest Alaska.

One of the Pebble Mine’s most prominent supporters over the weekend called for a boycott of the restaurants taking part in Trout Unlimited’s Savor Bristol Bay campaign.

Gail Phillips, the president of Truth about Pebble, a group of mine supporters, sent out her appeal for a boycott via e-mail to her “family and friends” – including the chefs – following an Associated Press story featuring chef Kevin Davis at the Steelhead Diner and chef Seth Caswell at Emmer & Rye. The chefs are among those participating in the Trout Unlimited campaign.

The e-mail from Phillips, also a former Alaska state legislator, prompted food blogger Ronald Holden – Seattle’s Global Gourmet – to ask a question Monday.

“Seriously, Ms. Phillips, are you nuts?” Holden asked on two blogs, including his own.

“Every single visitor and every single local knows Seattle is famous for salmon,” Holden responded to Phillips. “Like it or leave it, salmon is at the heart of Seattle’s restaurant economy.”

The Trout Unlimited campaign is timed to coincide with Seattle’s Pacific Marine Expo 2009, the largest commercial marine trade show on the West Coast.

Phillips recites an oft-heard complaint coming from the pro-Pebble contingent that questions how Pebble opponents can come out against a mine that has no final development plan and isn’t permitted.

Holden apparently has heard enough about Pebble to make up his mind.

“A wealth of minerals lies beneath the tundra, and Pebble wants it,” he says on his blog. “Trouble is, getting the riches would require a vast open-pit mine, the world’s biggest, on the headwaters of Bristol Bay.”

Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. and Anglo American have a 50-50 partnership to develop Pebble, which they say is one of the richest gold and copper deposits in the world. Plans call for starting the permitting process in 2010 with construction beginning as early as 2013.

Phillips said Monday that Holden has no clue what the mine is going to look like, nor does anybody else, until a final plan is developed.

“For a food blogger to already lay out the perimeters of the mine plan is foolish. It is not real because there is no plan yet,” she said.

The other restaurants: Art of the Table, Chiso, Flying Fish, Persimmon, Ponti Seafood Grill, Rover’s Restaurant, Tilth Restaurant, Tilikum Place Cafe, The Pike Brewing Co., Palace Kitchen and Etta’s Seafood.

Written by: emeraldw