The Wonder List with Bill Weir (2015) s03e04 Episode Script
Alaska: Buried Treasure
1
[dramatic music]
♪
- I'd like to tell you
a fish story.
And, like most fish stories,
it will sound like
I'm exaggerating
about the beauty
and the beasts
and the people,
all larger than life.
But you'll know
I'm telling the truth
if you've ever been to Alaska
where everything is big
including the amount
of copper and gold
in that dirt.
But digging it up
[boom]
Could risk the last great run
of wild salmon left on Earth,
which sets up a fight
that pits neighbor
against neighbor,
native against native.
And it's a fish story
that might just change the wy
you think about America
and the future
and dinner.
♪
[sizzling]
My name is Bill Weir,
and I'm a storyteller.
I've reported
from all over the world,
and I have seen
so much change.
[upbeat rock music]
So I made a list
of the most wonderful places
to explore
right before they change
forever.
♪
This is "The Wonder List."
[gentle piano]
♪
In Alaska, this is not
just a flower.
It is a clock.
It is a pretty magenta
alert system called fireweed.
♪
When it blooms
from the bottom up
The folks in Kodiak know
that the Fourth of July parae
is almost here.
[cheering]
The kids in the villages
know it's belly flop season.
- Blueberry.
- Show me where they are.
Time to pick blueberries
under a midnight sun.
- And blackberries.
- And when that color pops,
the fishermen of Bristol Bay
know they better gas their
boats, mend their nets,
because when fireweed
starts blooming,
the salmon start running.
Tens of millions of them,
miraculously smelling their wy
from open ocean up rivers,
over falls,
across lakes to the exact spt
of their birth.
And along the way,
they feed every form of life:
whales to wolves,
eagles to people,
foxes to fireweed.
But last year,
when the fireweed bloomed,
the salmon didn't show
for two agonizing weeks.
So this year, like every yea,
Alaska wonders,
"How long will this gift
keep on giving?"
So let's go wonder with them.
[sweeping instrumental music]
♪
Let's head southwest
out of Anchorage,
catch a float plane
out of Kodiak,
and touch down on the coastlie
of Katmai National Park,
home of the biggest,
furriest,
toothiest salmon-lovers
on the planet.
♪
And waiting for us here
is the crew of the M/V "Water"
♪
Salmon for lunch?
- Salmon cakes.
- All right.
[both laughing]
- Eat like the bears.
- You wanna trade lives,
Captain?
[laughter]
- It's pretty comfortable
right here.
On a day like today,
it seems pretty easy.
- In World War II,
this was a tugboat.
These days, it's a bear boat.
Were you the first guy
to start
running tours like this?
- I was.
- And what was the reaction
when you said,
"Maybe I wanna introduce
tourists to brown bears."
Did people think
you were nuts?
- No, no, no, it was
kind of a natural step,
and for everybody that came
and seen how nice it was
- Yeah.
- How reasonable it was
to be around
and photograph bears.
For every one
of those that come,
each one of those
have ten friends
that would like to do
the same thing.
- Nice and reasonable, he say.
Okay, then, let's go see.
So where are we here?
- We're on
the beaches of Katmai.
- This is Erik,
a special ed teacher
turned professional bear guid.
- Sometimes the bears will walk
on down these
beaches here
or right over the meadows
in these grasses.
- Now, the rule I always
heard as a young scout,
if it's black, stay back,
if it's brown, lay down.
[laughs]
- Well
- Should I be practicing
my fetal position
if they get too close,
or how does that
- You don't wanna
be submissive, but you also
wanna be respectful,
so what I tend to do
is take a knee.
You know, I let them know
that I'm there.
I talk to them just like
I would talk to anybody.
- His mentor is Brad,
a naturalist guide
who's been bringing
tourists here for 15 years,
bunched together
in tight, focused groups.
Safety in numbers, he figure.
- I've traveled all around the
world looking for wildlife,
and there's no experience
like this where we go in
and we basically
get along with an animal
that, almost everywhere else
in the world, hates people.
- Under strict orders
from the Parks Department
never to approach
these animals,
we find an empty spot
in the meadow
to wait and watch,
and, within minutes,
we're surrounded.
One, two
three, four.
Five, six, seven.
Eight, nine, ten.
It's rush hour.
[whispers] My goodness.
[soft instrumentals]
My heart is pounding
like a little bunny.
- [chuckles]
- This is so much better than
looking for tigers in India.
I can't even tell you.
When the sockeye jumpers stat
heading upstream to spawn,
the bears of Katmai will gore
themselves for weeks.
They'll go from winter skinny
to the size of fat ponies.
But while the fireweed
is blooming,
the fish are nowhere
to be found.
So we'll have to be content
watching them graze the meadw
or dig for clams.
- The population of brown bears
is greater here
than it is anywhere
in the world.
- And how much of that
has to do with
the sockeye salmon?
- It has everything
to do with the salmon.
- Yeah.
- I mean, that's why
the brown bear here
is so large compared to
all the other species
of brown bear everywhere else.
- Nutrition.
- Nutrition.
♪
- But then,
a curious congress
of brown bruins
wanders our way.
The adolescents
find a few chew toys
washed up on the beach,
and it suddenly becomes obvios
that while we very much respect
the keep your distance rule,
they do not.
Erik's theory
on body language
is about to get
a real world test.
And we're about to learn why
it is absolutely vital
to have an experienced guide
alongside.
[rock music]
♪
[upbeat music]
- [chuckles]
Coming out to play.
Wow, here they come.
Oh, my gosh.
[camera lens clicking]
[edgy music]
♪
[edgy music continues]
♪
This is not supposed to happe.
♪
We're supposed to hunker down
and admire distant grizzlies
through long lenses.
But these two mamas
and their bunch of kids
they didn't get that memo.
We can't run,
so we huddle behind Erik
and try to take solace
in the idea that he gets paid
to do this.
[Erik murmuring
in background]
[edgy music]
♪
- Holy [bleep].
[laughter]
Well, that was unbelievable.
WeWe were in the middle
of a bear parade.
- Well, we were
we stood our ground.
We made our focus in one spot,
and they came to us.
- Yeah.
- I set my boundary,
and they violated that,
so I had to let them know
that they have gone too far.
- What were you reaching for
in case things
went dicey back there?
Show me.
- Oh, we use a flare,
so
- Like "Jurassic Park."
- Kinda, yeah.
You open it up, pop it,
and it makes quite a sound
and a disturbance
that the bears really hate.
- Backs them off.
- And it backs them off.
- You guys okay?
You having fun?
- Yeah, oh, God, yeah.
- Oh, yeah.
- Brad believes this is safe
in part because this
is one of the rare spots
in Alaska
where humans carry cameras
instead of guns.
- That teaches me a lesson,
that the bears aren't
evil animals at heart, but
we have made them dislike us
and they become dangerous.
But here's that one place
where bears respect people
because the people
respect bears.
- There was a time
when the state of Alaska
thought that if they
killed the bears,
there would be more fish
for the people,
but Brad tells me
the salmon runs
weren't nearly as healthy.
When this guy poops
in the woods, as bears do,
he's spreading marine nutriens
into these valleys.
They are stewards
of an environment
where everything
is connected by salmon.
- I'm scared every year
Are they gonna come back?
- Really?
- And every year, so far,
they show up like miracles,
and I say, "Oh, thank you."
And everybody's happy,
and the bears are happy,
and the gulls and the eagles
and the foxes
- Yeah.
- And the wolves, they all
they all cash in.
- And while the bears
around Kodiak sit around
waiting to get full,
the boats of Kodiak
are doing the same.
[gentle guitar]
And hundreds
of bear-like men
have come north
with bear-like urges.
- A lot of guys come up
and it's fish, fight,
and [bleep], so
- [laughs]
- It's what we do.
- The Three-F club.
- Yeah.
- This is Chris.
He used to work
in finance and marketing,
then he discovered
he could crew a salmon boat
for a few months
and leave with 50,000 bucks.
- This is one of the only jobs
you can work 3, 4, 5 months,
6 months, maybe, and take
the rest of the year off
and go do whatever I want.
- That's the attitude
that fills this wild,
distant corner of America
on the Fourth of July.
[sirens blaring]
choir: Should auld
acquaintance be forgot ♪
Keep your eye on
the grand old flag, hey! ♪
- A fantastic day
to people watch
[military drumming]
In a melting pot
formed by fish.
all: Back to the river
I'll smell my way ♪
Maybe you'll see
my kids someday ♪
I'm a salmon
I'm a salmon ♪
[bluesy music]
♪
- What's up, fellas?
- How you doing?
What's going on?
- How are you?
- Good, how are you?
- I'm good.
I'm Bill.
- Bill?
- Coleman, good to meet you.
- Ernie.
- Ernie, how's it going, man?
- Good.
- Word is that
one of these guys
was throwing punches
in town last night,
and Ernie's left eye
might be a clue.
Is that a fishing accident
there?
- Course it was.
- [laughs]
- Hell yeah,
what else would it be?
- What else?
Yeah.
- One is from Washington Stat,
the other two,
high school buddies from Main.
So what's the best part
of this gig
and what's the worst part?
- Oh, jellies are
- These guys are a special
and increasingly rare breed,
as the habitat for salmon
has steadily disappeared.
See, this amazing species
lays her eggs in freshwater,
and after they hatch,
the little fry will hang out
in rivers, lakes, or streams
for a year or two
before heading out to sea
to get fat.
But as the United States
dammed more and more rivers
over the years, wild salmon
had nowhere to spawn.
The Atlantic habitat
all but disappeared,
while logging and damming
and overfishing
devastated stocks
in the Pacific Northwest,
leaving Alaska
as the last pure refuge
for the king of fish.
Is there concern among guys
about the fragility of that,
or in your business
- Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.
- Is it just like
you gotta make money
and just hit it?
- Oh, no, I mean,
this is a livelihood,
and there's plenty of guys
that are
multiple generation fisherme.
It basically supports the tow.
If fishing died off here,
there wouldn't be much left.
[soft piano]
- Unlike the rest of
the country,
Alaska has
a constitutional commitment
to keep these guys coming bak
and catching fish.
♪
And to understand how,
we should head north
to Bristol Bay
to see
how make-or-break fortunes
can all come down
to a lonely lady in a tower.
[rock music]
♪
[rock music]
♪
- The fireweed flowers
are halfway up.
The clock is ticking.
Soon, something will click
in those little salmon brain,
and they'll start
sniffing their way
from saltwater to fresh.
But until then,
massive schools
are churning offshore
in one of the great
hunting grounds
left on the planet.
To everyone's great relief,
the king of fish has arrived.
If you're a salmon,
if you're a sockeye salmon
- This is a bad place
to be right now.
- This is a bad place
to be.
Lindsey captained a salmon bot
here for 15 years.
Having two babies
changed her life,
but not her love for this.
You wish you were fishing?
- I do.
- I mean, you can bring
a two-year-old
and a five-year-old out
and have them pull some nets.
- There's no way.
- [laughs]
- There's no way
to keep them alive out here.
- So tell me what's happenin.
What's going on around us?
- The salmon industry
is going on around us.
1.5 million fish were caught in
Bristol Bay yesterday, yeah.
- But it sounds like the season
is squirrely again.
Like they anticipated
- Yeah.
- 40, 50 million salmon.
They've only
- They're coming.
They're late.
They're supposed to peak
on July 4th,
but some years they're early,
some years they're later.
They're wild animals, you know?
- Yeah. I guess last year
they were saying people
were almost ready to go home,
and then they, boom!
- People did go home,
and then they came, yeah.
People pulled their boats
out of the water.
- 32-footers
are the biggest boats
allowed to fish this bay.
♪
With no industrial trawlers,
it means more fish
for everyone,
including setnetters
like Melanie.
Instead of chasing fish,
she anchors her net
on the bottom
and then makes multiple trips
to empty it.
She's the fourth generation
to fish this inlet,
following the dreams
of her father,
who came from up north.
- He always dreamt of becoming
a Bristol Bay fisherman,
and he met my mom
at the university in Fairbanks.
When he found out
she was from Bristol Bay,
he was like, "Ooh!"
[laughter]
And then he started fishing
the next summer.
- Wow, so it was
- Yeah.
- Love at first fish,
I guess, right?
- Kind of, yeah.
[laughter]
- This one 300-foot net
- Uh-huh.
- Is your livelihood.
This is your business.
- Yes.
If we didn't have that anymore,
it wasit would
our identities
would be changed.
- Right.
- How we identify as humans
would be different.
We are fish people.
- While a lot of her catch
will end up in her own freeze,
most of what is caught
in Bristol Bay
goes to places like this.
Oh, wow.
Wow, look at that.
Oh, my goodness.
Silver Bay Seafoods
is largely owned by fisherme,
frustrated that they
weren't able to turn
their catch
into profit fast enough.
- These things run
at about 35 fish a minute.
These machines right here
are capable of running,
in the course of a day,
about 1.4 or 1.5 million
round pounds.
- Wow.
- Yeah.
- These babies
were swimming yesterday.
In about six weeks,
they'll be
on your grocer's shelf.
In the old days,
they used cans.
Today, it is frozen,
shrink-wrapped fillets.
But even when
the salmon industrial complex
cranks at an astonishing rat,
it's sustainable.
Over 45 million fish
are expected to join
this year's record run
through Bristol Bay,
but Alaska only catches half
so they keep coming.
And our on
the "Jack of Hearts,"
Gaylord is among those trying
to catch the 2 billionth salmn
since they started
keeping records 133 years ag.
- So that says something about
the nature of the returns.
It says something about the
stewardship of the resource,
which, in my opinion,
is getting better.
- Is it?
- As opposed
Yes, I think so.
I think, you know,
by and large, the managers here
have a wretched job.
It's the mostprobably the most
thankless job on the planet.
- This is the Alaska Departmet
of Fish and Game in Dillingha.
- Every day,
Gaylord and his competitors
put ears to radios
to learn exactly when
and for how long
they're allowed
to drop those nets.
- Commercial fishing
with just gillnets
will open from 5:30 p.m.,
July 9th,
until 3:30 p.m., July 11th.
♪
- It's a schedule determined y
Alaska Fish and Wildlife fols
a few miles inland.
Folks like Monette,
a biologist from Florida
more comfortable with
sea turtles and saltwater.
But she loves fish so much,
she signed up
to sit in a tower alone
and count them.
- Last summer,
I was in Bristol Bay,
and I never saw the fish,
and this is just
I mean, it's so incredible to me
to just watch them swim up.
I mean, I do close my eyes
at the end of the day,
and I just see
fish swimming, but
- Do you?
[laughter]
So other people count sheep.
- Yeah, I'm count
I'm counting sockeye.
- This low-tech method
is how the state determines
that a sustainable
amount of salmon
are making it past
all those fishermen
in Bristol Bay.
- And this is what
we're counting, escapement.
- Right, right.
- These are the ones
that make it up the river.
- These are the Steve McQueens
of "The Great Escape."
- Yeah, sure.
- Salmon edition.
- Sure.
- Yes, the future depends
on the ones that got away
and the people
who make sure they do.
- So I think it's just really
interesting management,
and it's science and commerce
in action.
- Right, right.
- So, I don't know.
Super excited about it and,
you know, having somebody
around to talk to about it.
[laughter]
'Cause usually you're
out here by yourself.
- Yes, as long as
people like Monette
keep caring and counting,
as long as the water
doesn't get too warm
and these perfect little laks
and streams stay perfect,
this run could last forever.
But these days,
it seems nothing lasts foreve,
and all those
fish people worry about
what could happen upstream,
since they found
a king's ransom
buried under the tundra.
[rock music]
♪
[relaxing music]
♪
- Kind of amazing to think
that all of this, all of it,
would be Russia
if not for one of the great
real estate deals of all tim.
It was the 1860s.
After years of war,
Tsar Alexander
was so strapped for cash
he sold us Alaska
for less than 2¢ an acre.
Most Americans thought
it was a horrible deal,
until they found gold,
the yellow kind
and the black kind.
This state was built by wealh
pulled from the ground.
And according to this man
and his partners,
we ain't seen nothing yet.
- Well, it's just on
the other side of this.
- Oh, wow.
- Do you wanna just
swing around this hill again?
- Sure.
- It's this
this red spot right here.
- This is it?
This is where it all started?
- Where it all started.
- His name is John Shively.
He's a New Yorker
who marched for civil rights
and came north in the '70s
as an anti-poverty volunteer
working with native tribes.
- I've seen, you know,
jobs change people's lives,
and I
It's sort of a trite saying,
but I think
it's absolutely true
that the best social program
is a job.
- He rose among
Alaskan democrats,
became the governor's
chief of staff,
even an environmental
regulator.
But a few years back,
he was approached
by a Canadian mining company
called Northern Dynasty
about running a project
called the Pebble Mine.
- One of the local pilots,
a geologist, said,
"Have you seen anything
sort of different?"
He said, "Well, there's
this little red spot out here.
I'll show it to you."
- Turns out, that red spot
marks a monster fortune.
Northern Dynasty believes there
are a hundred million ounces
of gold in them thar hills.
Oh, and 80 billion
pounds of copper.
This space, this little chunk
of real estate, could be worth
half a trillion dollars
over the next century or so.
Utah's Bingham Canyon
is the largest man-made hole
in the world today.
By some estimates, Pebble
will be three times larger
because the gold and copper
is spread out deep and wide,
and to get it,
they have to turn that rock
into dust,
and to do that
[boom]
They'll need
a new explosives factory
just to make enough dynamite.
That's just to start
the project
that would take decades
and cost billions.
- Not only do we have
to develop the mine,
we've gotta build a road
that's gonna be
between 90 and 140 miles.
We've gotta build a port.
We've gotta bring in
substantial power,
and then the operating costs
will be over
a billion dollars a year.
- Right.
- So
- But it's still worth it.
It's stillthere's still
so much precious metal.
- Yeah, yeah, no, yeah.
I mean, it's
a world-class prospect.
- In addition
to gold and copper,
this ground also holds
millions of tons of sulfur.
Mixed with air and water,
sulfur turns to acid,
so Pebble would create
a giant lake of waste
held back by an earthen dam
like this one
at the Mount Polley mine
in British Columbia.
When it failed a few years ag,
billions of gallons
of acidic water and sludge
rushed into
the nearby watershed.
That disaster was seized on y
the campaign against Pebble.
But John Shively says things
would be different here.
- You know, the Mount Polley
incident in British Columbia,
as far as I'm concerned,
was total mismanagement.
Certainly by the management
of the mine,
and they didn't use the design
that the engineers
had said.
They put more water
behind the dam
than they should have,
and it was predictable
what was gonna happen.
But even there, theyou know,
if you look at the total impact
on the fishery,
I think, in the end,
you're gonna find
it's very minimal.
- But critics point out
that Pebble would be
in a wetland,
connected by streams
and aquifers to Lake Iliamna,
a major headwater
that feeds Bristol Bay,
nature's maternity ward
for millions of salmon.
- People say, "Well, you know,
you shouldn't do this
in 'Bristol Bay.'"
Well, Bristol Bay,
the land area, not including
Bristol Bay itself, the water,
is the size of
the state of Ohio,
so it would be like saying,
"Well, we shouldn't
do anything in Ohio."
So this whole idea
that we will destroy the fishery
just is incorrect.
- That's like saying, "Well,
a mosquito bite
on my toe
can't kill me
'cause it's so small."
This watershed is like
a circulatory system
of the body,
so if something
goes wrong up here,
it all flows down there.
Not true?
- Well, you know,
you're starting out
with something
that's a small percentage
of the whole land area of Ohio,
and it goes
into the river systems.
Well, even if some of it goes,
it dilutes, and, again,
the mineralization
is less than 1%.
Could some things go wrong?
There's always that possibility.
Would it devastate the fishery?
I don't see any way
you could do it.
♪
- But it's not hard
to find people who disagree.
- I mean, I was
a typical redneck kid
that, you know, came up here
and thought everything
was just so incredible,
and there was
very little government.
There was almost
unlimited resources,
and I couldn't imagine
why we needed all the regulation
of the federal system.
- This is Rick, bush pilot
turned politician.
- But when you watch what
happened to the population,
what happened with the oil boom,
and all of the rest of it,
in hindsight, I was wrong.
- He used to be President
of the Alaskan Senate,
a proud Republican friend to
miners, loggers, and hunters.
- I thought mining
was one of the economic bases
that kept Alaska going,
and I thought it was
generally a pretty good thing.
- But then he
caught wind of Pebble
and their plans to create
a hole big enough
to hold every mine in Alaska.
- We had never seen
anything like that in Alaska.
Never even imagined it.
[relaxing music]
♪
- Rick fired up his float plae
so I could visit
what looks like
summer camp in heaven
but is actually science
on a dinner break.
The Alaskan Salmon Project
has been studying
this run since the '40s.
- It's pretty close.
- Dan is the University
of Washington ecologist
who runs it
when he's not
feeding unannounced stranger.
Delicious.
- What's remarkable about
Alaska's salmon ecosystems
is that they are
still incredibly healthy.
The habitat is mostly intact.
So you have this combination of
intact, clean, viable habitat,
simple, responsive,
effective management.
Together you have
a very productive
and sustainable system.
- You have paradise.
- And it's beautiful too.
- So what do you say to somebody
who says, "We can have both.
"We live on the cutting edge
of mineral extraction,
"and we got some really smart
fish scientists,
so why not?
We can have both."
- Because if pollution
gets into that water supply,
it's going to be nearly
impossible to contain.
- None of the massive
sulfide mining projects
in a wet climate
have been clean.
They've all had major problems,
so this is just
not the place to do that.
It doesn't mean
that we don't need minerals.
It doesn't mean
that we don't need mining,
but this is not the place.
- Could there be some leakage?
Yes, there could,
and we will have monitoring
systems that will
be required
to show us if
there's anything leaking.
To me, that is probably
the biggest risk,
and I don't think
that's a substantial risk.
- John believes Alaska
can have both
yellow gold from the ground,
red gold from the water.
But first, he has to
convince the Alaskans
who have been here the longes.
[rock music]
[rock music]
♪
[relaxing music]
♪
- The winters may be
long and dark,
but when fireweed fever
is in full effect,
it's good to be a kid
in a native Alaskan village.
- Give me a lift?
- Yeah.
- What was your name again?
- Jalen.
- Jalen, thank you, Jalen.
All right, here we go.
Jalen is the youth ambassador
for the Yupik in this region,
the natives who followed the
salmon here centuries back,
and he's eager for me
to meet everyone.
What's your name?
- [mumbles]
- Dusty?
- Gusky.
- Gusky, okay.
[overlapping chatter]
- Squeeze it really hard.
- Squeeze it really hard?
Really?
Harder?
- Yeah.
- Harder?
- Yeah.
- Now you squeeze.
[screams]
[relaxing guitar music]
♪
In the village, Lucy is
tending to her smokehouse
and filleting her salmon.
I tell her that in New York
I pay $35.00 a pound.
She tells me that
in New Stuyahok
she pays $5.00 a year
for all she can eat.
- The natives, you know,
we're allowed to get
as much as we want.
- Right.
- I normally put up
between 70 to 150 kings
in a summer.
- Wow.
About a third
of this village of 500
lives below the poverty line,
the kind of folks
who might benefit
from a new mining economy.
But over at Tim's house,
one of the village elders,
his mind is made up.
The people from the mine
come to you and made an offer
to try to get you
on their side?
- Well, I told them,
"Gee, golden dreams
and poisoned streams
they don't mix."
- Are there any members
of your community,
any other native Alaskans,
who want the mine,
who think it's a good idea
for jobs and money?
- Money comes and goes.
Grandkids I'd rather see
growing up the way
I grew up.
I don't wanna let them see
"What were you thinking
"when you wanted that mine?
"What about us?
"What were you guys thinking
as elders?"
Water is more precious
than gold.
This is our gold.
- But among natives
closest to the mine,
the attitude is much differen.
There, it is all about jobs.
- I think it was great
for our community,
just to see everyone
being able to, you know,
care for their family,
buy groceries,
fuel for the winter.
- Kirsty was one of around
150 locals who got a job
when Pebble was exploring
and expanding the site
before resistance
turned fierce
and the project
ground to a halt.
- But now, everyone
just struggling so much
without the very little jobs
we do have here.
Without Pebble,
it's a lot different.
- And Pebble loaned Lisa
enough money
to open this store,
which now struggles
to stay open.
- Pebble to us means
that there's hope,
and people have
the opportunity to work
and hold their heads high
and support their families.
And, you know, all the people
that were against Pebble,
they said they had
all these plans,
that they would do tourism,
and we tried tourism,
and it didn't work.
- Lisa and other supporters
of Pebble blame the feds
for getting in the way
after the EPA put out
this damning assessment.
According to their science,
Pebble could threaten
the health of the fishery.
When it dropped,
Northern Dynasty stewed.
Its stock fell from $20
to 20 cents a share.
And the fishing folk breathed
a sigh of relief.
But then
Donald Trump became presiden.
And one of the very first
moves of his EPA
was to settle with
Northern Dynasty.
A company which has invested
over $700 million so far
now has one less hurdle
and fresh hope.
- I've seen people get into the
mining industry,
get jobs,
feed their families, better
their economic situation,
better their education,
so that's why I'm in.
Why the mining industry
is still interested
is because it is
one of the largest copper
and gold prospects in the world,
and, you know, I think,
because of that, at some point,
it'll be developed.
[somber music]
♪
- The resistance is
most fierce in Dillingham,
the Bristol Bay town
that lives or dies
with the salmon.
But you don't have to
look far to see
that their economic struggle
is real,
and this is just one corner
of a planet
where 50 Pebble mines
won't be enough
to fill the wants and needs
of 7 billion people.
- The minerals
that they're talking about
are the kinds of minerals
that people use
every day
in your cameras,
in your cell phones,
you know, in Fort Knox.
- Right.
- If you're gonna be part of
that technological scene,
you are already exacerbating
the situation
by demanding the minerals that,
on the one hand,
you absolutely,
unequivocally, positively,
must have for your life
at the same time as you're
trying to maintain a salmon run,
you know,
so that you can eat well.
- Gaylord was just
one of the fishermen
who teamed up with Lindsey
to push back
against Pebble Mine.
After her years fighting
to catch salmon, she now fights
for salmon as part of
the group Trout Unlimited.
- What do you think
their end game is at this point?
- I think they're gonna
ride this out
until the political wheels are
greased in their direction.
I think many of us support
sustainable economic development
and realize that we all,
everybody needs jobs
and to be part of an economy.
But in the end,
it's like anything
that's going to have
significant harm
on the fishery or
the quality of the water
should be a no-go.
There's some places
that are just so amazing,
very few places left,
that there have to be times
that we're willing to say no.
[rock music]
♪
[relaxing music]
♪
- So how would you characterize
the mindset of an Alaskan?
Like, what are the people
up here like?
How do they regard
the rest of the United States?
- Well, in the last ten years,
Alaska lost its backbone
of sourdoughs,
of "real Alaskans."
Now it's such a hodgepodge
of people getting away
from crowded, hot areas
that nobody knows how to vote
because they don't know
enough about the state
and its history.
Everybody's thinking "now."
That's my biggest problem
with America.
It's all about now.
- Karl came here
as a one-year-old
and has spent his whole life
embracing this wilderness.
He was one of the first
stand-up paddleboarders
in Alaska.
♪
And he's gonna take me out
for a lovely spin
around Turnagain Arm.
♪
I'm hoping to catch
one of their legendary
bore tides, a single wave
you can ride for miles,
butno luck.
So instead, we talk politics
and climate change
and the alarming fact
he now does more paddling
in Alaska than skiing.
- Winters, we're losing winter.
Snow down at sea level
here in Southcentral Alaska
is no longer existing.
- Yeah.
- And that'sit's just sad.
We'll get a few snowstorms, and
then it just warms
right up
to 40 degrees and rains
on top of all of it.
[relaxing music]
♪
- We marvel
that the temperatures
are so mild now
some think Alaska
could compete with Florida
as a retirement haven
and that the Arctic
is melting so dramatically
you can now sip a cocktail
and wave at a polar bear
while sailing what used to be
an icy ship graveyard
known as
the Northwest Passage
because the "Crystal Serenit"
proved
you can now take passengers
from Anchorage to New York
over the top.
But you don't have to
get on a ship
to see the changes.
Wow.
You can just go for a walk.
- A hundred years ago,
there was no lake.
- There was no lake?
- You can see
how Portage Glacier has receded.
- Dave works for
the World Wildlife Fund,
but when he first
came to Alaska in the '80s,
he was a Forest Service rangr
here at the Portage Glacier.
- And at that time,
this glacier extended
all the way
across the lake
and around partway
down the lake.
- The irony is that
while their famous pipeline
was paying the bills,
the stuff inside it
was helping alter
their climate.
Since the oil crash,
the dividend check
sent to every Alaskan
is shrinking,
along with budgets
for scientists and teachers
and fish managers,
making it all the harder
to say no to the world's
biggest gold and copper mine.
- Which is really unfortunate,
because we are
at a point
as climate changes,
as our communities change,
that we need to be doing
the best science we can
to understand what's going on
in our rivers
and streams
and our ocean and,
at the same time,
trying to build in
that resilience
with renewable,
sustainable energy
and all of those things
that will create
a new economy for Alaska.
- And he hopes against hope
that that new economy
includes salmon.
If the water in these streams
warms by just a few degrees,
it could throw off
the entire spawning cycle.
[mellow music]
But, for the moment,
when the fireweed blooms,
so much of natural Alaska
remains so close to perfect.
Here's to the last frontier,
however long it lasts.
[dramatic music]
♪
- I'd like to tell you
a fish story.
And, like most fish stories,
it will sound like
I'm exaggerating
about the beauty
and the beasts
and the people,
all larger than life.
But you'll know
I'm telling the truth
if you've ever been to Alaska
where everything is big
including the amount
of copper and gold
in that dirt.
But digging it up
[boom]
Could risk the last great run
of wild salmon left on Earth,
which sets up a fight
that pits neighbor
against neighbor,
native against native.
And it's a fish story
that might just change the wy
you think about America
and the future
and dinner.
♪
[sizzling]
My name is Bill Weir,
and I'm a storyteller.
I've reported
from all over the world,
and I have seen
so much change.
[upbeat rock music]
So I made a list
of the most wonderful places
to explore
right before they change
forever.
♪
This is "The Wonder List."
[gentle piano]
♪
In Alaska, this is not
just a flower.
It is a clock.
It is a pretty magenta
alert system called fireweed.
♪
When it blooms
from the bottom up
The folks in Kodiak know
that the Fourth of July parae
is almost here.
[cheering]
The kids in the villages
know it's belly flop season.
- Blueberry.
- Show me where they are.
Time to pick blueberries
under a midnight sun.
- And blackberries.
- And when that color pops,
the fishermen of Bristol Bay
know they better gas their
boats, mend their nets,
because when fireweed
starts blooming,
the salmon start running.
Tens of millions of them,
miraculously smelling their wy
from open ocean up rivers,
over falls,
across lakes to the exact spt
of their birth.
And along the way,
they feed every form of life:
whales to wolves,
eagles to people,
foxes to fireweed.
But last year,
when the fireweed bloomed,
the salmon didn't show
for two agonizing weeks.
So this year, like every yea,
Alaska wonders,
"How long will this gift
keep on giving?"
So let's go wonder with them.
[sweeping instrumental music]
♪
Let's head southwest
out of Anchorage,
catch a float plane
out of Kodiak,
and touch down on the coastlie
of Katmai National Park,
home of the biggest,
furriest,
toothiest salmon-lovers
on the planet.
♪
And waiting for us here
is the crew of the M/V "Water"
♪
Salmon for lunch?
- Salmon cakes.
- All right.
[both laughing]
- Eat like the bears.
- You wanna trade lives,
Captain?
[laughter]
- It's pretty comfortable
right here.
On a day like today,
it seems pretty easy.
- In World War II,
this was a tugboat.
These days, it's a bear boat.
Were you the first guy
to start
running tours like this?
- I was.
- And what was the reaction
when you said,
"Maybe I wanna introduce
tourists to brown bears."
Did people think
you were nuts?
- No, no, no, it was
kind of a natural step,
and for everybody that came
and seen how nice it was
- Yeah.
- How reasonable it was
to be around
and photograph bears.
For every one
of those that come,
each one of those
have ten friends
that would like to do
the same thing.
- Nice and reasonable, he say.
Okay, then, let's go see.
So where are we here?
- We're on
the beaches of Katmai.
- This is Erik,
a special ed teacher
turned professional bear guid.
- Sometimes the bears will walk
on down these
beaches here
or right over the meadows
in these grasses.
- Now, the rule I always
heard as a young scout,
if it's black, stay back,
if it's brown, lay down.
[laughs]
- Well
- Should I be practicing
my fetal position
if they get too close,
or how does that
- You don't wanna
be submissive, but you also
wanna be respectful,
so what I tend to do
is take a knee.
You know, I let them know
that I'm there.
I talk to them just like
I would talk to anybody.
- His mentor is Brad,
a naturalist guide
who's been bringing
tourists here for 15 years,
bunched together
in tight, focused groups.
Safety in numbers, he figure.
- I've traveled all around the
world looking for wildlife,
and there's no experience
like this where we go in
and we basically
get along with an animal
that, almost everywhere else
in the world, hates people.
- Under strict orders
from the Parks Department
never to approach
these animals,
we find an empty spot
in the meadow
to wait and watch,
and, within minutes,
we're surrounded.
One, two
three, four.
Five, six, seven.
Eight, nine, ten.
It's rush hour.
[whispers] My goodness.
[soft instrumentals]
My heart is pounding
like a little bunny.
- [chuckles]
- This is so much better than
looking for tigers in India.
I can't even tell you.
When the sockeye jumpers stat
heading upstream to spawn,
the bears of Katmai will gore
themselves for weeks.
They'll go from winter skinny
to the size of fat ponies.
But while the fireweed
is blooming,
the fish are nowhere
to be found.
So we'll have to be content
watching them graze the meadw
or dig for clams.
- The population of brown bears
is greater here
than it is anywhere
in the world.
- And how much of that
has to do with
the sockeye salmon?
- It has everything
to do with the salmon.
- Yeah.
- I mean, that's why
the brown bear here
is so large compared to
all the other species
of brown bear everywhere else.
- Nutrition.
- Nutrition.
♪
- But then,
a curious congress
of brown bruins
wanders our way.
The adolescents
find a few chew toys
washed up on the beach,
and it suddenly becomes obvios
that while we very much respect
the keep your distance rule,
they do not.
Erik's theory
on body language
is about to get
a real world test.
And we're about to learn why
it is absolutely vital
to have an experienced guide
alongside.
[rock music]
♪
[upbeat music]
- [chuckles]
Coming out to play.
Wow, here they come.
Oh, my gosh.
[camera lens clicking]
[edgy music]
♪
[edgy music continues]
♪
This is not supposed to happe.
♪
We're supposed to hunker down
and admire distant grizzlies
through long lenses.
But these two mamas
and their bunch of kids
they didn't get that memo.
We can't run,
so we huddle behind Erik
and try to take solace
in the idea that he gets paid
to do this.
[Erik murmuring
in background]
[edgy music]
♪
- Holy [bleep].
[laughter]
Well, that was unbelievable.
WeWe were in the middle
of a bear parade.
- Well, we were
we stood our ground.
We made our focus in one spot,
and they came to us.
- Yeah.
- I set my boundary,
and they violated that,
so I had to let them know
that they have gone too far.
- What were you reaching for
in case things
went dicey back there?
Show me.
- Oh, we use a flare,
so
- Like "Jurassic Park."
- Kinda, yeah.
You open it up, pop it,
and it makes quite a sound
and a disturbance
that the bears really hate.
- Backs them off.
- And it backs them off.
- You guys okay?
You having fun?
- Yeah, oh, God, yeah.
- Oh, yeah.
- Brad believes this is safe
in part because this
is one of the rare spots
in Alaska
where humans carry cameras
instead of guns.
- That teaches me a lesson,
that the bears aren't
evil animals at heart, but
we have made them dislike us
and they become dangerous.
But here's that one place
where bears respect people
because the people
respect bears.
- There was a time
when the state of Alaska
thought that if they
killed the bears,
there would be more fish
for the people,
but Brad tells me
the salmon runs
weren't nearly as healthy.
When this guy poops
in the woods, as bears do,
he's spreading marine nutriens
into these valleys.
They are stewards
of an environment
where everything
is connected by salmon.
- I'm scared every year
Are they gonna come back?
- Really?
- And every year, so far,
they show up like miracles,
and I say, "Oh, thank you."
And everybody's happy,
and the bears are happy,
and the gulls and the eagles
and the foxes
- Yeah.
- And the wolves, they all
they all cash in.
- And while the bears
around Kodiak sit around
waiting to get full,
the boats of Kodiak
are doing the same.
[gentle guitar]
And hundreds
of bear-like men
have come north
with bear-like urges.
- A lot of guys come up
and it's fish, fight,
and [bleep], so
- [laughs]
- It's what we do.
- The Three-F club.
- Yeah.
- This is Chris.
He used to work
in finance and marketing,
then he discovered
he could crew a salmon boat
for a few months
and leave with 50,000 bucks.
- This is one of the only jobs
you can work 3, 4, 5 months,
6 months, maybe, and take
the rest of the year off
and go do whatever I want.
- That's the attitude
that fills this wild,
distant corner of America
on the Fourth of July.
[sirens blaring]
choir: Should auld
acquaintance be forgot ♪
Keep your eye on
the grand old flag, hey! ♪
- A fantastic day
to people watch
[military drumming]
In a melting pot
formed by fish.
all: Back to the river
I'll smell my way ♪
Maybe you'll see
my kids someday ♪
I'm a salmon
I'm a salmon ♪
[bluesy music]
♪
- What's up, fellas?
- How you doing?
What's going on?
- How are you?
- Good, how are you?
- I'm good.
I'm Bill.
- Bill?
- Coleman, good to meet you.
- Ernie.
- Ernie, how's it going, man?
- Good.
- Word is that
one of these guys
was throwing punches
in town last night,
and Ernie's left eye
might be a clue.
Is that a fishing accident
there?
- Course it was.
- [laughs]
- Hell yeah,
what else would it be?
- What else?
Yeah.
- One is from Washington Stat,
the other two,
high school buddies from Main.
So what's the best part
of this gig
and what's the worst part?
- Oh, jellies are
- These guys are a special
and increasingly rare breed,
as the habitat for salmon
has steadily disappeared.
See, this amazing species
lays her eggs in freshwater,
and after they hatch,
the little fry will hang out
in rivers, lakes, or streams
for a year or two
before heading out to sea
to get fat.
But as the United States
dammed more and more rivers
over the years, wild salmon
had nowhere to spawn.
The Atlantic habitat
all but disappeared,
while logging and damming
and overfishing
devastated stocks
in the Pacific Northwest,
leaving Alaska
as the last pure refuge
for the king of fish.
Is there concern among guys
about the fragility of that,
or in your business
- Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.
- Is it just like
you gotta make money
and just hit it?
- Oh, no, I mean,
this is a livelihood,
and there's plenty of guys
that are
multiple generation fisherme.
It basically supports the tow.
If fishing died off here,
there wouldn't be much left.
[soft piano]
- Unlike the rest of
the country,
Alaska has
a constitutional commitment
to keep these guys coming bak
and catching fish.
♪
And to understand how,
we should head north
to Bristol Bay
to see
how make-or-break fortunes
can all come down
to a lonely lady in a tower.
[rock music]
♪
[rock music]
♪
- The fireweed flowers
are halfway up.
The clock is ticking.
Soon, something will click
in those little salmon brain,
and they'll start
sniffing their way
from saltwater to fresh.
But until then,
massive schools
are churning offshore
in one of the great
hunting grounds
left on the planet.
To everyone's great relief,
the king of fish has arrived.
If you're a salmon,
if you're a sockeye salmon
- This is a bad place
to be right now.
- This is a bad place
to be.
Lindsey captained a salmon bot
here for 15 years.
Having two babies
changed her life,
but not her love for this.
You wish you were fishing?
- I do.
- I mean, you can bring
a two-year-old
and a five-year-old out
and have them pull some nets.
- There's no way.
- [laughs]
- There's no way
to keep them alive out here.
- So tell me what's happenin.
What's going on around us?
- The salmon industry
is going on around us.
1.5 million fish were caught in
Bristol Bay yesterday, yeah.
- But it sounds like the season
is squirrely again.
Like they anticipated
- Yeah.
- 40, 50 million salmon.
They've only
- They're coming.
They're late.
They're supposed to peak
on July 4th,
but some years they're early,
some years they're later.
They're wild animals, you know?
- Yeah. I guess last year
they were saying people
were almost ready to go home,
and then they, boom!
- People did go home,
and then they came, yeah.
People pulled their boats
out of the water.
- 32-footers
are the biggest boats
allowed to fish this bay.
♪
With no industrial trawlers,
it means more fish
for everyone,
including setnetters
like Melanie.
Instead of chasing fish,
she anchors her net
on the bottom
and then makes multiple trips
to empty it.
She's the fourth generation
to fish this inlet,
following the dreams
of her father,
who came from up north.
- He always dreamt of becoming
a Bristol Bay fisherman,
and he met my mom
at the university in Fairbanks.
When he found out
she was from Bristol Bay,
he was like, "Ooh!"
[laughter]
And then he started fishing
the next summer.
- Wow, so it was
- Yeah.
- Love at first fish,
I guess, right?
- Kind of, yeah.
[laughter]
- This one 300-foot net
- Uh-huh.
- Is your livelihood.
This is your business.
- Yes.
If we didn't have that anymore,
it wasit would
our identities
would be changed.
- Right.
- How we identify as humans
would be different.
We are fish people.
- While a lot of her catch
will end up in her own freeze,
most of what is caught
in Bristol Bay
goes to places like this.
Oh, wow.
Wow, look at that.
Oh, my goodness.
Silver Bay Seafoods
is largely owned by fisherme,
frustrated that they
weren't able to turn
their catch
into profit fast enough.
- These things run
at about 35 fish a minute.
These machines right here
are capable of running,
in the course of a day,
about 1.4 or 1.5 million
round pounds.
- Wow.
- Yeah.
- These babies
were swimming yesterday.
In about six weeks,
they'll be
on your grocer's shelf.
In the old days,
they used cans.
Today, it is frozen,
shrink-wrapped fillets.
But even when
the salmon industrial complex
cranks at an astonishing rat,
it's sustainable.
Over 45 million fish
are expected to join
this year's record run
through Bristol Bay,
but Alaska only catches half
so they keep coming.
And our on
the "Jack of Hearts,"
Gaylord is among those trying
to catch the 2 billionth salmn
since they started
keeping records 133 years ag.
- So that says something about
the nature of the returns.
It says something about the
stewardship of the resource,
which, in my opinion,
is getting better.
- Is it?
- As opposed
Yes, I think so.
I think, you know,
by and large, the managers here
have a wretched job.
It's the mostprobably the most
thankless job on the planet.
- This is the Alaska Departmet
of Fish and Game in Dillingha.
- Every day,
Gaylord and his competitors
put ears to radios
to learn exactly when
and for how long
they're allowed
to drop those nets.
- Commercial fishing
with just gillnets
will open from 5:30 p.m.,
July 9th,
until 3:30 p.m., July 11th.
♪
- It's a schedule determined y
Alaska Fish and Wildlife fols
a few miles inland.
Folks like Monette,
a biologist from Florida
more comfortable with
sea turtles and saltwater.
But she loves fish so much,
she signed up
to sit in a tower alone
and count them.
- Last summer,
I was in Bristol Bay,
and I never saw the fish,
and this is just
I mean, it's so incredible to me
to just watch them swim up.
I mean, I do close my eyes
at the end of the day,
and I just see
fish swimming, but
- Do you?
[laughter]
So other people count sheep.
- Yeah, I'm count
I'm counting sockeye.
- This low-tech method
is how the state determines
that a sustainable
amount of salmon
are making it past
all those fishermen
in Bristol Bay.
- And this is what
we're counting, escapement.
- Right, right.
- These are the ones
that make it up the river.
- These are the Steve McQueens
of "The Great Escape."
- Yeah, sure.
- Salmon edition.
- Sure.
- Yes, the future depends
on the ones that got away
and the people
who make sure they do.
- So I think it's just really
interesting management,
and it's science and commerce
in action.
- Right, right.
- So, I don't know.
Super excited about it and,
you know, having somebody
around to talk to about it.
[laughter]
'Cause usually you're
out here by yourself.
- Yes, as long as
people like Monette
keep caring and counting,
as long as the water
doesn't get too warm
and these perfect little laks
and streams stay perfect,
this run could last forever.
But these days,
it seems nothing lasts foreve,
and all those
fish people worry about
what could happen upstream,
since they found
a king's ransom
buried under the tundra.
[rock music]
♪
[relaxing music]
♪
- Kind of amazing to think
that all of this, all of it,
would be Russia
if not for one of the great
real estate deals of all tim.
It was the 1860s.
After years of war,
Tsar Alexander
was so strapped for cash
he sold us Alaska
for less than 2¢ an acre.
Most Americans thought
it was a horrible deal,
until they found gold,
the yellow kind
and the black kind.
This state was built by wealh
pulled from the ground.
And according to this man
and his partners,
we ain't seen nothing yet.
- Well, it's just on
the other side of this.
- Oh, wow.
- Do you wanna just
swing around this hill again?
- Sure.
- It's this
this red spot right here.
- This is it?
This is where it all started?
- Where it all started.
- His name is John Shively.
He's a New Yorker
who marched for civil rights
and came north in the '70s
as an anti-poverty volunteer
working with native tribes.
- I've seen, you know,
jobs change people's lives,
and I
It's sort of a trite saying,
but I think
it's absolutely true
that the best social program
is a job.
- He rose among
Alaskan democrats,
became the governor's
chief of staff,
even an environmental
regulator.
But a few years back,
he was approached
by a Canadian mining company
called Northern Dynasty
about running a project
called the Pebble Mine.
- One of the local pilots,
a geologist, said,
"Have you seen anything
sort of different?"
He said, "Well, there's
this little red spot out here.
I'll show it to you."
- Turns out, that red spot
marks a monster fortune.
Northern Dynasty believes there
are a hundred million ounces
of gold in them thar hills.
Oh, and 80 billion
pounds of copper.
This space, this little chunk
of real estate, could be worth
half a trillion dollars
over the next century or so.
Utah's Bingham Canyon
is the largest man-made hole
in the world today.
By some estimates, Pebble
will be three times larger
because the gold and copper
is spread out deep and wide,
and to get it,
they have to turn that rock
into dust,
and to do that
[boom]
They'll need
a new explosives factory
just to make enough dynamite.
That's just to start
the project
that would take decades
and cost billions.
- Not only do we have
to develop the mine,
we've gotta build a road
that's gonna be
between 90 and 140 miles.
We've gotta build a port.
We've gotta bring in
substantial power,
and then the operating costs
will be over
a billion dollars a year.
- Right.
- So
- But it's still worth it.
It's stillthere's still
so much precious metal.
- Yeah, yeah, no, yeah.
I mean, it's
a world-class prospect.
- In addition
to gold and copper,
this ground also holds
millions of tons of sulfur.
Mixed with air and water,
sulfur turns to acid,
so Pebble would create
a giant lake of waste
held back by an earthen dam
like this one
at the Mount Polley mine
in British Columbia.
When it failed a few years ag,
billions of gallons
of acidic water and sludge
rushed into
the nearby watershed.
That disaster was seized on y
the campaign against Pebble.
But John Shively says things
would be different here.
- You know, the Mount Polley
incident in British Columbia,
as far as I'm concerned,
was total mismanagement.
Certainly by the management
of the mine,
and they didn't use the design
that the engineers
had said.
They put more water
behind the dam
than they should have,
and it was predictable
what was gonna happen.
But even there, theyou know,
if you look at the total impact
on the fishery,
I think, in the end,
you're gonna find
it's very minimal.
- But critics point out
that Pebble would be
in a wetland,
connected by streams
and aquifers to Lake Iliamna,
a major headwater
that feeds Bristol Bay,
nature's maternity ward
for millions of salmon.
- People say, "Well, you know,
you shouldn't do this
in 'Bristol Bay.'"
Well, Bristol Bay,
the land area, not including
Bristol Bay itself, the water,
is the size of
the state of Ohio,
so it would be like saying,
"Well, we shouldn't
do anything in Ohio."
So this whole idea
that we will destroy the fishery
just is incorrect.
- That's like saying, "Well,
a mosquito bite
on my toe
can't kill me
'cause it's so small."
This watershed is like
a circulatory system
of the body,
so if something
goes wrong up here,
it all flows down there.
Not true?
- Well, you know,
you're starting out
with something
that's a small percentage
of the whole land area of Ohio,
and it goes
into the river systems.
Well, even if some of it goes,
it dilutes, and, again,
the mineralization
is less than 1%.
Could some things go wrong?
There's always that possibility.
Would it devastate the fishery?
I don't see any way
you could do it.
♪
- But it's not hard
to find people who disagree.
- I mean, I was
a typical redneck kid
that, you know, came up here
and thought everything
was just so incredible,
and there was
very little government.
There was almost
unlimited resources,
and I couldn't imagine
why we needed all the regulation
of the federal system.
- This is Rick, bush pilot
turned politician.
- But when you watch what
happened to the population,
what happened with the oil boom,
and all of the rest of it,
in hindsight, I was wrong.
- He used to be President
of the Alaskan Senate,
a proud Republican friend to
miners, loggers, and hunters.
- I thought mining
was one of the economic bases
that kept Alaska going,
and I thought it was
generally a pretty good thing.
- But then he
caught wind of Pebble
and their plans to create
a hole big enough
to hold every mine in Alaska.
- We had never seen
anything like that in Alaska.
Never even imagined it.
[relaxing music]
♪
- Rick fired up his float plae
so I could visit
what looks like
summer camp in heaven
but is actually science
on a dinner break.
The Alaskan Salmon Project
has been studying
this run since the '40s.
- It's pretty close.
- Dan is the University
of Washington ecologist
who runs it
when he's not
feeding unannounced stranger.
Delicious.
- What's remarkable about
Alaska's salmon ecosystems
is that they are
still incredibly healthy.
The habitat is mostly intact.
So you have this combination of
intact, clean, viable habitat,
simple, responsive,
effective management.
Together you have
a very productive
and sustainable system.
- You have paradise.
- And it's beautiful too.
- So what do you say to somebody
who says, "We can have both.
"We live on the cutting edge
of mineral extraction,
"and we got some really smart
fish scientists,
so why not?
We can have both."
- Because if pollution
gets into that water supply,
it's going to be nearly
impossible to contain.
- None of the massive
sulfide mining projects
in a wet climate
have been clean.
They've all had major problems,
so this is just
not the place to do that.
It doesn't mean
that we don't need minerals.
It doesn't mean
that we don't need mining,
but this is not the place.
- Could there be some leakage?
Yes, there could,
and we will have monitoring
systems that will
be required
to show us if
there's anything leaking.
To me, that is probably
the biggest risk,
and I don't think
that's a substantial risk.
- John believes Alaska
can have both
yellow gold from the ground,
red gold from the water.
But first, he has to
convince the Alaskans
who have been here the longes.
[rock music]
[rock music]
♪
[relaxing music]
♪
- The winters may be
long and dark,
but when fireweed fever
is in full effect,
it's good to be a kid
in a native Alaskan village.
- Give me a lift?
- Yeah.
- What was your name again?
- Jalen.
- Jalen, thank you, Jalen.
All right, here we go.
Jalen is the youth ambassador
for the Yupik in this region,
the natives who followed the
salmon here centuries back,
and he's eager for me
to meet everyone.
What's your name?
- [mumbles]
- Dusty?
- Gusky.
- Gusky, okay.
[overlapping chatter]
- Squeeze it really hard.
- Squeeze it really hard?
Really?
Harder?
- Yeah.
- Harder?
- Yeah.
- Now you squeeze.
[screams]
[relaxing guitar music]
♪
In the village, Lucy is
tending to her smokehouse
and filleting her salmon.
I tell her that in New York
I pay $35.00 a pound.
She tells me that
in New Stuyahok
she pays $5.00 a year
for all she can eat.
- The natives, you know,
we're allowed to get
as much as we want.
- Right.
- I normally put up
between 70 to 150 kings
in a summer.
- Wow.
About a third
of this village of 500
lives below the poverty line,
the kind of folks
who might benefit
from a new mining economy.
But over at Tim's house,
one of the village elders,
his mind is made up.
The people from the mine
come to you and made an offer
to try to get you
on their side?
- Well, I told them,
"Gee, golden dreams
and poisoned streams
they don't mix."
- Are there any members
of your community,
any other native Alaskans,
who want the mine,
who think it's a good idea
for jobs and money?
- Money comes and goes.
Grandkids I'd rather see
growing up the way
I grew up.
I don't wanna let them see
"What were you thinking
"when you wanted that mine?
"What about us?
"What were you guys thinking
as elders?"
Water is more precious
than gold.
This is our gold.
- But among natives
closest to the mine,
the attitude is much differen.
There, it is all about jobs.
- I think it was great
for our community,
just to see everyone
being able to, you know,
care for their family,
buy groceries,
fuel for the winter.
- Kirsty was one of around
150 locals who got a job
when Pebble was exploring
and expanding the site
before resistance
turned fierce
and the project
ground to a halt.
- But now, everyone
just struggling so much
without the very little jobs
we do have here.
Without Pebble,
it's a lot different.
- And Pebble loaned Lisa
enough money
to open this store,
which now struggles
to stay open.
- Pebble to us means
that there's hope,
and people have
the opportunity to work
and hold their heads high
and support their families.
And, you know, all the people
that were against Pebble,
they said they had
all these plans,
that they would do tourism,
and we tried tourism,
and it didn't work.
- Lisa and other supporters
of Pebble blame the feds
for getting in the way
after the EPA put out
this damning assessment.
According to their science,
Pebble could threaten
the health of the fishery.
When it dropped,
Northern Dynasty stewed.
Its stock fell from $20
to 20 cents a share.
And the fishing folk breathed
a sigh of relief.
But then
Donald Trump became presiden.
And one of the very first
moves of his EPA
was to settle with
Northern Dynasty.
A company which has invested
over $700 million so far
now has one less hurdle
and fresh hope.
- I've seen people get into the
mining industry,
get jobs,
feed their families, better
their economic situation,
better their education,
so that's why I'm in.
Why the mining industry
is still interested
is because it is
one of the largest copper
and gold prospects in the world,
and, you know, I think,
because of that, at some point,
it'll be developed.
[somber music]
♪
- The resistance is
most fierce in Dillingham,
the Bristol Bay town
that lives or dies
with the salmon.
But you don't have to
look far to see
that their economic struggle
is real,
and this is just one corner
of a planet
where 50 Pebble mines
won't be enough
to fill the wants and needs
of 7 billion people.
- The minerals
that they're talking about
are the kinds of minerals
that people use
every day
in your cameras,
in your cell phones,
you know, in Fort Knox.
- Right.
- If you're gonna be part of
that technological scene,
you are already exacerbating
the situation
by demanding the minerals that,
on the one hand,
you absolutely,
unequivocally, positively,
must have for your life
at the same time as you're
trying to maintain a salmon run,
you know,
so that you can eat well.
- Gaylord was just
one of the fishermen
who teamed up with Lindsey
to push back
against Pebble Mine.
After her years fighting
to catch salmon, she now fights
for salmon as part of
the group Trout Unlimited.
- What do you think
their end game is at this point?
- I think they're gonna
ride this out
until the political wheels are
greased in their direction.
I think many of us support
sustainable economic development
and realize that we all,
everybody needs jobs
and to be part of an economy.
But in the end,
it's like anything
that's going to have
significant harm
on the fishery or
the quality of the water
should be a no-go.
There's some places
that are just so amazing,
very few places left,
that there have to be times
that we're willing to say no.
[rock music]
♪
[relaxing music]
♪
- So how would you characterize
the mindset of an Alaskan?
Like, what are the people
up here like?
How do they regard
the rest of the United States?
- Well, in the last ten years,
Alaska lost its backbone
of sourdoughs,
of "real Alaskans."
Now it's such a hodgepodge
of people getting away
from crowded, hot areas
that nobody knows how to vote
because they don't know
enough about the state
and its history.
Everybody's thinking "now."
That's my biggest problem
with America.
It's all about now.
- Karl came here
as a one-year-old
and has spent his whole life
embracing this wilderness.
He was one of the first
stand-up paddleboarders
in Alaska.
♪
And he's gonna take me out
for a lovely spin
around Turnagain Arm.
♪
I'm hoping to catch
one of their legendary
bore tides, a single wave
you can ride for miles,
butno luck.
So instead, we talk politics
and climate change
and the alarming fact
he now does more paddling
in Alaska than skiing.
- Winters, we're losing winter.
Snow down at sea level
here in Southcentral Alaska
is no longer existing.
- Yeah.
- And that'sit's just sad.
We'll get a few snowstorms, and
then it just warms
right up
to 40 degrees and rains
on top of all of it.
[relaxing music]
♪
- We marvel
that the temperatures
are so mild now
some think Alaska
could compete with Florida
as a retirement haven
and that the Arctic
is melting so dramatically
you can now sip a cocktail
and wave at a polar bear
while sailing what used to be
an icy ship graveyard
known as
the Northwest Passage
because the "Crystal Serenit"
proved
you can now take passengers
from Anchorage to New York
over the top.
But you don't have to
get on a ship
to see the changes.
Wow.
You can just go for a walk.
- A hundred years ago,
there was no lake.
- There was no lake?
- You can see
how Portage Glacier has receded.
- Dave works for
the World Wildlife Fund,
but when he first
came to Alaska in the '80s,
he was a Forest Service rangr
here at the Portage Glacier.
- And at that time,
this glacier extended
all the way
across the lake
and around partway
down the lake.
- The irony is that
while their famous pipeline
was paying the bills,
the stuff inside it
was helping alter
their climate.
Since the oil crash,
the dividend check
sent to every Alaskan
is shrinking,
along with budgets
for scientists and teachers
and fish managers,
making it all the harder
to say no to the world's
biggest gold and copper mine.
- Which is really unfortunate,
because we are
at a point
as climate changes,
as our communities change,
that we need to be doing
the best science we can
to understand what's going on
in our rivers
and streams
and our ocean and,
at the same time,
trying to build in
that resilience
with renewable,
sustainable energy
and all of those things
that will create
a new economy for Alaska.
- And he hopes against hope
that that new economy
includes salmon.
If the water in these streams
warms by just a few degrees,
it could throw off
the entire spawning cycle.
[mellow music]
But, for the moment,
when the fireweed blooms,
so much of natural Alaska
remains so close to perfect.
Here's to the last frontier,
however long it lasts.