Fish refuge proposed for area of Pebble deposit
BRISTOL BAY: Legislative approval would be required; fishing could still take place.

November 4, 2006
Anchorage Daily News (AK)
By ELIZABETH BLUEMINK

A proposal to create a state fish refuge in the same location as the Pebble copper and gold prospect is provoking debate from Naknek to Anchorage as well as consternation about what level of protection a state refuge would give to the Bristol Bay tributaries.

Fishing would still be allowed in a state refuge. But would a mine?

Homer resident George Matz sees his proposal as fitting in with recent claims from the company that hopes to develop a Pebble mine: that it won't allow net loss of fish.

"I thought this would be a real standard to go by," Matz said Friday.

His proposal to turn state-owned waters in Talarik Creek and the Koktuli River into a refuge -- as well as to create a citizen advisory committee and a refuge management plan -- will be aired in early December at the next Board of Fisheries meeting in Dillingham.

The proposal is also available for written public comment until Nov. 17.

The Board of Fisheries can recommend creation of a state fish refuge but only the Legislature can create one.

In recent weeks, state Department of Fish and Game citizen-led advisory committees have been weighing in on Matz's idea, some in favor, some against.

The Anchorage advisory committee met for two nights this week.

The committee members voted nearly unanimously to support the idea of a fish refuge in the Bristol Bay tributaries. The committee also asked the board to create a task force to study the matter in more depth.

Anchorage committee chairman Steve Flory said he's not sure what the Board of Fisheries will do with the original proposal but thinks it needs work.

Two weeks ago, the Nushagak advisory committee voted unanimously to expand the fish refuge proposal to the entire Bristol Bay watershed.

The Naknek-Kvichak committee voted 5-2 against the proposed refuge. The Togiak committee voted Thursday but results were unavailable Friday.

The proposal is getting intense scrutiny from the mining industry.

Northern Dynasty Mines, the Canadian company exploring Pebble, says it opposes the proposal.

This isn't the first time that the Board of Fisheries has taken up the idea of a refuge in the Bristol Bay watershed.

In the mid-1990s, four advisory committees asked the Board of Fisheries and Board of Game for a 6-million-acre fish and game reserve on state land in the drainages of the Nushagak, Mulchatna and Kvichak rivers and Iliamna Lake.

That proposal got a lot of attention at the time but didn't succeed, said Jim Marcotte, executive director of the Board of Fisheries.

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Daily News reporter Elizabeth Bluemink can be reached at ebluemink@adn.com or 257-4317.

Date: 11/4/2006