Let’s learn from our past, not repeat history

This time of year is usually a busy and exciting time for the people of Bristol Bay, but the upcoming commercial fishing season amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, has transformed it into our worst nightmare. As the death toll continues to climb worldwide, community shutdowns, travel bans and shelter-in-place orders have helped “flatten the curve” in some areas of the country. Unfortunately for Bristol Bay, Gov. Mike Dunleavy classified commercial fishing and sport fishing as an “essential service”, forcing our region to soon become the epicenter of an influx of thousands of people. This migration illustrates the exact opposite of what the medical community suggests to combat the spread of COVID-19. We are pleading to the deaf ears of state leadership as more than 15,000 commercial fishing processors, fishermen, and support industry members are already starting to travel from all over the world, many from COVID-19 hot spots, into our remote region of Southwest Alaska.

It was clear in early spring that Gov. Dunleavy had no intention of shutting down the 2020 salmon season, the best option to protect local communities from COVID-19. Bristol Bay’s regional organizations continue to work hard to secure proper public health and safety protocols. For the past month, they’ve advocated for mandatory quarantine and testing measures, and have stated if such protocols will not or cannot be possible, the commercial fishery should be shut down for the 2020 season. These efforts to prioritize the health and safety of Bristol Bay’s people and the fishing community alike have made little progress among the commercial fishing industry and no progress with the Dunleavy administration. This was confirmed with the recent release of the governor’s mandate #17, addressing Alaska fisheries. The mandate calls for wearing masks while traveling, self-quarantine and social distancing measures, but is devoid of any testing and enforcement measures that could keep Bristol Bay’s people and fishing community safe. We are dealing with fishery workers arriving daily already who are ignoring quarantine mandates, many heading straight from the airplane to our local grocery stores, putting our entire community at risk. Without proper testing mandated and quarantine policies enforced, the governor is putting local communities and the fishing community in grave danger.

Even without the risk skyrocketed by the commercial fishery, Bristol Bay communities have an uphill battle when it comes to combating COVID-19. The region has only one 16-bed hospital, 12 beds which are suitable for patients who require oxygen, no intensive care unit, only one ventilator and one medevac plane. The extreme limits of our local health care facilities to adequately serve patients if and when an outbreak of COVID-19 occurs in Bristol Bay, could result in catastrophic loss of our region’s most vulnerable residents, parents, children and grandchildren. The fact that many in our communities lack access to running water, many live in intergenerational homes, and issues with overcrowding due to lack of housing, puts our people at much higher risk of preventing and combating the virus. This combination of factors compounded by the influx of thousands of people, who aren’t being tested or quarantined with any enforcement, is a recipe for disaster. Why should the local residents be on hunker down orders and the non-residents can freely come into our hometowns for the sake of greed while we all stay at home protecting our families. We are talking about the difference between life or death. Local tribal leaders are concerned and have been asking about the fleet and processors COVID-19 plans of what is the plan when people start getting sick? We are still waiting for these answers and we continue to be ignored. Enforcement of the mandates is going to be a major problem for the Bristol Bay region, we just don’t have enough local enforcement. The Curyung Tribe wrote a letter to the Bureau of Indian Affairs requesting federal special agents to be deployed to Dillingham and the region to assist the local authorities. Other tribes in the region have also requested assistance. We will also need the help of the Army National Guard and U.S. Coast Guard.

We are held hostage to a governor hell-bent on repeating a devastating history. Bristol Bay is unfortunately no stranger to epidemics. Among other instances, the 1918-1919 Spanish Flu epidemic, exacerbated by the commercial fishery, devastated our local people and communities. Many of our local families are the direct children and grandchildren of the orphans that survived the Spanish Flu. We are the survivors of the survivors. This history is fresh in our collective community memory and we refuse to sit silently as the governor and industry trade the lives of our people for the economic benefit of the commercial fishing industry. We cannot put price tags on the lives of our residents; no amount of money is worth the devastation this commercial salmon season will bring to our region. A message to the non-residents who are contemplating coming to Bristol Bay this summer: You should think twice before stepping on the soil of our ancestors.

As we watch food processing plants and other fisheries shut down due to COVID-19 outbreaks across America, it begs the question: How is it possible the Governor is allowing an influx of thousands of people from across the world into a rural, primarily Alaska Native region without adequate safety protocols? Why are we expendable? This wouldn’t even be considered if it were in an affluent, non-Native region of the U.S. The Dunleavy administration and commercial fishing industry have made it clear that devastating loss and suffering in Bristol Bay is worth their fishing check.

The commercial fishery cannot take place in Bristol Bay this summer without mandates and enforcement for testing and quarantine measures and adequate plans when an outbreak occurs and the sick require health care, hospitalization, and medevac air transport out of the region. If the commercial fishery continues on the path with no regard for local communities’ requests for proper protections, the suffering and devastation will not only be on the governor of Alaska. The fishing industry can also say goodbye to the world-renowned, wild and sustainable salmon market. As we provide half the world’s supply, the demand for salmon will plummet as consumers refuse to eat salmon tainted with the devastation of Bristol Bay’s people.

We are doing everything we can to protect the local residents during these trying times of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are in the fight for humanity and the health and safety for everyone. Gov. Dunleavy’s decision to open the Bristol Bay commercial fishing season not only puts many lives at risk, but will be recorded in the history books as another sacrifice of Alaska’s indigenous people for the sake of industry profit.

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