about bristol bay

The PLACE

Bristol Bay, located in Southwestern Alaska, is home to one of the world’s last intact wild salmon ecosystems. Yup’ik, Dena’ina and Sugpiaq/Alutiiq Peoples living here are some of the world’s last salmon-based cultures. This region hosts the world’s largest wild sockeye salmon run.

The region has multiple major rivers, including the Nushagak, Kvichak, Naknek, Egegik, Igushik, Alagnak, Wood, Ugashik and Togiak, and countless additional lakes, streams, and wetlands that sustain life here. The watershed encompasses a diverse topography, including active volcanoes, tidal flats and tundra, ocean coasts and other terrains. In this hydrologically-unique landscape, surface and subsurface waters are highly connected, and sustain all five species of Pacific salmon found in North America – sockeye, coho, chinook, keta, and pink – which return to spawn each summer. These fish are a cornerstone of Bristol Bay’s cultures, communities, ecosystem and economy. 

THE PEOPLE

Bristol Bay supports more small boat salmon fishermen than any other fishery on earth. People from all walks of life travel to Bristol Bay each summer to participate in the sockeye salmon fishery. Get to know the region, fishery, and people in our media gallery.

THE FISHERY

The Bristol Bay commercial fishery began on the shores of Nushagak Bay over 140 years ago and remains a beacon for sustainable salmon management. Bristol Bay stands as the most valuable wild salmon fishery in the world with record returns and harvests year after year.

According to The Economic Benefits of Bristol Bay Salmon Report completed in 2021, Bristol Bay’s economic benefits exceeded $2.2 billion in 2019, generating more than 15,000 jobs and supplying as much as 57% of the world’s sockeye salmon catch. Bristol Bay supports more than 8,500 individual fishermen, with 2,000 from Bristol Bay, another 2,500 from Alaska, and 4,000 from outside of Alaska. In addition, Bristol Bay supports more than 6,000 seafood processing workers and a cascade of support industry workers and businesses. Regionally the fishery is the greatest economic driver and generates $990 million in economic activity in Alaska and $800 million in induced impacts for the Pacific Northwest.

In response to requests for Clean Water Act action to protect this irreplaceable fishery, the Environmental Protection Agency conducted its Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment in 2014, concluding that Bristol Bay supports the world’s greatest sockeye salmon fishery and that development of the Pebble Mine would irreversibly damage the productive watershed which supports this fishery.