Copyright Anchorage Daily News
Our parents raised us on the north end of Chisik Island in the mouth of Tuxedni Bay on the west side of Cook Inlet. Mom and Dad started setnetting there in 1970. We grew up in a subsistence lifestyle and learned at an early age to respect the wildlife and fish that sustained us. We would have fun watching pods of belugas swim through the Tuxedni Channel in the summer. They would sometimes swim up to the skiffs and watch as we picked fish. The whales would break the water’s surface, blowing a spray of breath that smelled of rotten salmon. Slowly, there were fewer sightings of the small white whales. Then there were years we wouldn’t see any swim by the north tip of Chisik. Their numbers dwindled to the point that they became endangered. Eventually, they became a protected species, to hopefully one day grow back to sustainable numbers. Unfortunately, despite stopping all subsistence hunting of belugas, the playful white whales have failed to rebuild their numbers in Cook Inlet. We still haven’t been able to see our favorite whales once again swim by the beaches of Chisik while we fish in the summer. Recent studies by NOAA scientists have shown that Tuxedni Bay is a primary winter feeding area for the whales, as well as in the spring and fall. We didn’t know the whales congregated around Chisik Island in the winter because we weren’t there. Very few humans are, and that’s part of what makes it so quiet and inviting for them. Scientists listened for beluga calls with devices stuck in the mud and learned just how critical this area is for the beluga’s survival and recovery. The scientists say the importance of Tuxedni Bay for belugas in the winter is akin to how critical the Susitna Delta is for the whales in the summer where they feast on salmon. Scientists think the belugas likely eat shrimp, smelt, razor clams, eulachon, salmon and other important foods found in the rich Tuxedni Bay ecosystem. Hopefully, this inspiring and pristine area of the Inlet will stay healthy, helping sustain a steady re-growth of these fragile animals so they can return to Tuxedni not just in the fall, winter and spring but also in the summer once again. Now the bad news. A partnership between a gold mining company and Cook Inlet Region, Inc. (CIRI), an Alaska Native corporation, has slowly, quietly developed a gold discovery in a valley right next to Tuxedni Bay. The proposed Johnson Tract mine would be located in the headwaters of the Johnson River at the base of a glacier coming off Mount Iliamna, only a few miles upstream from Cook Inlet. CIRI wants to build a haul road through the low pass from the Johnson River valley, through Lake Clark National Park, and into Tuxedni Channel to ship the ore. They’d also build a port to load the ships right where the belugas seek quiet refuge and sustain themselves through the winter. This mine and port could mean the beluga population may never recover, or worse, go extinct. And all the other land and sea creatures of Tuxedni Bay and the Lake Clark coastline would be greatly harmed too. As an Alaska Native family with history going back countless centuries, and original shareholders of CIRI, we do not support this project, and we don’t understand how a Native corporation formed for the betterment of Alaska Native lands, waters and culture could blatantly disregard the voices of the local Natives that their decision will impact. If you have any regard for the wildlife and fish of our great state, especially the future of Cook Inlet’s unique beluga whales, please reach out to your local, state and federal representatives and express your concern. This development will affect us all. Marina, Claudine and Sonny Haynes are Cook Inlet Region, Inc. shareholders, multi-generational setnet fishermen and landowners on Chisik Island in Tuxedni Bay on the west side of Cook Inlet.
