Migrations
Bristol Bay, Alaska · August 19–23, 2026 and August 15-30 2027
By the time they reach the rivers of Bristol Bay, the sockeye salmon have spent years at sea. Their bodies, once silver, begin to turn a brilliant red. They stop feeding, drawing on their remaining energy to push against powerful currents, navigate shallow channels, and reach the spawning grounds upstream.
Along the way, bears gather at the riverbanks, eagles circle overhead, and an entire ecosystem comes alive around their passage. Each salmon that reaches its destination completes an extraordinary journey of endurance and instinct, one that has unfolded in these waters for thousands of years.
Bristol Bay is home to the world’s largest sockeye salmon runs. For millennia, its thousands of miles of cold, clear rivers, ponds and lakes have provided the ideal conditions for wild sockeye salmon to thrive.
The Indigenous people of Bristol Bay have lived alongside these migrations for more than 10,000 years. Alaska Native communities have built cultures, traditions, and subsistence lives rooted in a profound understanding of the salmon and the ecosystems that sustain them. Their stewardship has helped preserve one of the world’s most remarkable natural landscapes.
There are ongoing threats to Bristol Bay, the foremost being Pebble mine, a deep deposit of copper that lies at the head waters of Bristol Bay’s two great salmon rivers. Copper is a neurotoxin to salmon, and impedes their ability to navigate. The mineral is just one of many toxins generated by the hard-rock mining process. Pebble mine would be one of the largest hard-rock mines in the world; as big as Manhattan and as deep as the Grand Canyon. The porous, wet region would absorb and distribute toxins like a sponge, causing irreversible damage to the untouched watershed.
Alaska Natives have joined with other stakeholders in the region to fight Pebble mine, defending Bristol Bay for nearly three decades. It has been a costly, divisive and exhausting fight, and few residents are untouched by the issue. Due to these efforts, however, Bristol Bay remains a rare place where nature continues to function much as it has for thousands of years: a living reminder of the resilience and abundance that are possible when healthy rivers are allowed to flow freely.
