A weeklong celebration of Bristol Bay salmon is scheduled to kick off in Seattle, Washington, on November 15. Bristol Bay, located in Southwest Alaska, is home to the nation’s largest and most valuable wild salmon fishery. During the celebration week, a variety of Seattle restaurants will feature Bristol Bay wild salmon on their menus to support Trout Unlimited’s Savor Bristol Bay campaign.

Savor Bristol Bay is a unique collaboration between the fine dining industry and Trout Unlimited, the nation’s oldest and largest organization dedicated to the conservation, protection and restoration of North America’s coldwater fisheries and their watersheds. Savor Bristol Bay aims to educate seafood lovers about the unique flavor, health benefits and sustainability of Bristol Bay salmon while also informing consumers about the risks the fishery faces from Pebble, a proposed open-pit gold and copper mine.

“Bristol Bay produces some of the world’s best wild salmon and yields the largest run of sockeye salmon on the planet. I’m pleased to feature this extraordinary seafood at my restaurant and I encourage people to try it. I’m certain they’ll be won over by its delicious taste and want to do what they can to protect Bristol Bay from the proposed mine,” said Kevin Davis, co-owner of and executive chef at Seattle’s Steelhead Diner. An avid fly fisherman, Davis recently returned from a lobbying trip to Washington, D.C., where he pushed for the permanent protection of Bristol Bay.

If developed, Pebble would be one of the world’s largest open-pit mines, located in the headwaters of Bristol Bay’s most productive salmon rivers. This massive open-pit mine would alter, if not destroy, the region’s pristine spawning habitat and generate billions of tons of waste containing metals toxic to fish. The mine not only threatens the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery but also the livelihoods of thousands of fishermen, many of whom live in the Pacific Northwest.

For more information, please go to www.savebristolbay.org -- Jay Cassell