Bristol Bay
| Bristol Bay | ||
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 Bristol Bay satellite image |
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| Waters | Bering Sea | |
| Land mass | North America | |
| Geographical location | 57 ° 57 ′ N , 158 ° 31 ′ W | |
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| width | 290 km | |
| Tributaries | Cinder River , Egegik River , Igushik River , Kvichak River , Meshik River , Nushagak River , Naknek River , Togiak River , Ugashik River | |
 Bristol Bay west of the Alaska Peninsula |
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The Bristol Bay is the easternmost arm and the flattest part of the Bering Sea .
The bay is bounded to the north by mainland Alaska and to the east and south by the Alaska Peninsula . It is 400 km long and 290 km wide at its confluence with the open sea. To the north, the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta joins the alluvial land of the Kuskokwim and Yukon rivers in the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge .
At the eastern end of the bay, in Nushagak Bay near Dillingham and in Kvichak Bay near Naknek , there is one of the highest tidal ranges in the world with up to ten meters . West of Nushagak Bay is the Nushagak Peninsula .
Up until about 10,000 years ago, Bristol Bay was part of Beringia , a land bridge between North America and Asia, over which the first people probably immigrated to America. After the sea level rose, the bay formed a rich source of food for people and animals.
Russian and English explorers brought the first European influences to the region in the 18th century. James Cook named the bay in 1778 after the British naval officer Augustus John Hervey , 3rd Earl of Bristol (1724–1779). The Russian-American Company sent surveying teams to explore and map the coast of Bristol Bay and the adjacent inland in the late 1790s . In 1819 the Aleut Andrei Ustiugov made the first comprehensive map of the bay. Until the middle of the 19th century, the Russian Navy carried out extensive surveys in the Bering Sea and Bristol Bay and gave names to many geographic objects such as Mount Pavlof or Becharof Lake , which are used to this day.
Fisheries and nature conservation
Bristol Bay is known for its extraordinary salmon stocks, which are both commercially used and the livelihood of the native Eskimo population. In particular, the world's largest population of red salmon lives here . The fishery for salmon and other fish generates annual sales of around USD 2 billion, plus around USD 100 million for tourism, which is directly linked to angling and whale watching .
The northern Pacific right whale , the beluga whale and the orca live in the bay , while seals and walruses gather on the coasts and the endangered black duck breeds .
The ecosystem and fisheries were threatened by the planned development for oil and gas production in the shelf area . In 2010, US President Barack Obama issued a temporary memorandum for the exploration, which he made permanent in December 2014. The development ban is based on the authorization in the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953 and can be unilaterally lifted by any subsequent president.
The Pebble Mine , a copper, gold and molybdenum mine that has been explored but has not yet gone into operation and that would be located in the catchment area of the bay, poses further problems for the ecological quality of the bay . The Environmental Protection Agency recommended in July 2014 that the mine should not be opened due to an environmental impact assessment under the Clean Water Act . By pumping out the surface and groundwater for an open-pit mine field the size of Manhattan, it would irreversibly disrupt the region's water balance. Two of the most important tributaries into the bay and large-scale wetlands would be greatly changed or destroyed if the mine were expanded according to the smallest model of the application. The changed flow of the rivers would also damage the bay itself. A decision has not yet been made and can be reviewed in court (as of February 2015).
Web links
- Bristol Bay Native Association (Engl.)
- Bristol Bay's Critical Habitat Area (Engl.)
- Bristol Bay on the United States Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System
Individual evidence
- ↑ Whitehouse.gov: President Obama Protects Alaska's Bristol Bay From Future Oil and Gas Drilling , December 16, 2014
- ↑ EPA: EPA Region 10 proposes protections for Bristol Bay watershed