The bill would codify EPA’s historic protections for the world’s greatest sockeye fishery. 

Today, Wild Salmon Center and our Bristol Bay Defense Fund coalition partners celebrate the introduction of the Bristol Bay Protection Act in Congress. 

The bill—sponsored by Representative Mary Peltola (D-AK)—marks a big step forward for our coalition’s decade-long campaign to permanently safeguard the world’s greatest sockeye salmon fishery. 

Rep. Peltola’s bill would layer protections on top of a 2023 decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to invoke Clean Water Act (“404c”) protections for the headwaters of Bristol Bay. The agency’s decision made this area off-limits to the Pebble Mine project, which would have been the world’s largest open pit mine.

“This bill would ensure that the headwaters of Bristol Bay stay off limits to Pebble and mines like it,” says WSC Alaska Director Emily Anderson. “Given mounting pressure from extractive industries, an act of Congress can make sure that Bristol Bay can withstand future development threats.”

“This bill would ensure that the headwaters of Bristol Bay stay off limits to Pebble and mines like it. An act of Congress can make sure that Bristol Bay can withstand future development threats.”

WSC Alaska Director Emily Anderson

If signed into law, the Bristol Bay Protection Act would codify EPA’s 2023 final determination. That move—which followed years of relentless advocacy by Bristol Bay Tribes, our coalition partners, and more than four million letters of support to EPA—was spotlighted last spring in the White House Rose Garden. 

“Bristol Bay and its irreplaceable fishery deserve the strongest possible defense from shifting politics and beyond,” Anderson says. “This bill is a big step in the right direction.”

“Bristol Bay deserves the strongest possible defense from shifting politics and beyond. This bill is a big step in the right direction.”

WSC Alaska Director Emily Anderson