76.0°

Seattle resident and gillnetter David Harsila, the association president, wrote that the mine could poison several rivers that provide prime spawning and rearing habitat for salmon.

Just the specter of a giant, open-pit gold and copper mine is enough to ruin the market reputation of wild Bristol Bay sockeye, he said.

The association represents up to 400 of the bay's roughly 2,800 commercial fishing permit holders.

Mining is not sustainable and the mine would threaten more jobs than it would create, Harsila said.

"There's no upside to this mine for the people who depend on fishing," Harsila said.

Bruce Jenkins, a manager for the mine developer, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. of Vancouver, British Columbia, said Tuesday he read the letter and was disappointed the fishing association came to a conclusion on the mine before all the facts are in.

The company has not applied for federal and state permits, which would trigger years of public discussion about the mine design, Jenkins said. Northern Dynasty will not apply for permits until 2007, he said, and the soonest construction could begin is 2010.

"The project will not be permitted if the fishing is threatened," Jenkins said.

Harsila's letter cites the possibility of mining chemicals such as cyanide and sulfuric acid killing juvenile salmon and earthquakes breaching ponds holding mine tailings.

The association letter contains "rhetoric and sensationalism," Jenkins said, and the fishermen have not made any recent effort to learn more about the project.

He said large mines and fishermen operate together in other watersheds, including the Fraser River, western Canada's richest sockeye source, where millions of fish migrate annually, just as in Bristol Bay.

Northern Dynasty has said the Pebble deposit likely contains more than 27 million ounces of gold and 16.5 billion pounds of copper. Prospectors have staked numerous mining claims on Pebble's edges.

The mine would operate north of Lake Iliamna, which connects to Bristol Bay by the Kvichak River, historically a prolific salmon producer.

Bristol Bay has the world's largest sockeye run. Last year, commercial fishermen caught 24.5 million sockeye worth more than $91 million at the docks.