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Fishermen, what fishermen? Fish, what fish?
Chris Zimmer : May 17.2007.jpg)
After 10 years of trying to develop the Tulsequah Chief one would hope that Redcorp understands the importance of the Taku’s commercial fishery to Juneau. However, at Redcorp’s recent annual shareholder meeting a Redcorp "senior engineer" asked a Rivers Without Borders staffer "Are there gillnets there? I thought that was illegal." This cerainly does not inspire confidence in the company.
And, it reminds me of the early days of the Tulsequah Chief issue. During the early analyses of the mine proposal the Tulsequah River was thought by BC agencies to not be an important fish river. BC changed its tune pretty quickly after Alaska Department of Fish and Game studies showed significant salmon habitat and salmon fry everywhere in the river.
Well everywhere, that is, except for in the toxic plume of acid mine drainage and heavy metals pouring out of the Tulsequah Chief into the Tulsequah River. Now that’s illegal!