The Change Mariner

As fishing falls off, rural Alaska wants oil

CSMonitor:
But now, eight years after a federal move to buy back oil leases in the vast Bay, residents and state officials are doing what would have seemed unthinkable not long ago: inviting oil firms back.

The reversal reflects the fallen fortunes of Alaska's once-powerful salmon industry, and the economic challenges facing rural Alaska.

"The fishing industry is failing so badly.... We've got to do something else," said Nels Anderson, a former state lawmaker and native leader spearheading the push for energy development. "We just can't afford to live out here."

Despite Bristol Bay's salmon bounty, commercial fishers have been hit by the rise of cheap farmed salmon. Last year's Bristol Bay commercial salmon catch was worth only $29.8 million, less than a quarter the 20-year average. And there are few moneymaking alternatives for residents, largely Yupik Eskimos, Athabaskan Indians, and Aleuts. The economic problem affects other fishing-dependent areas of Alaska as well.

So, as local energy costs soar - fuel is so expensive that fishermen say they can't even afford to make ice to chill their salmon - the once-rejected oil and gas industry is being wooed as a potential paycheck savior.