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The area of Bristol Bay permanently protected from future oil and gas leasing is 52,234 square miles and is referred to by Department of the Interior as the North Aleutian Basin.
Congress or the president has extended temporary but impermanent protection to Bristol Bay for decades.
Projections for the region’s fisheries are historically high for 2015, including for the world’s largest run of sockeye salmon and pollock in the southeastern Bering Sea.
The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953 outlines federal responsibility over submerged lands of the outer continental shelf, and provides authority for the President’s withdrawal of lands.
Bristol Bay’s protection honors the legacy of the late Harvey Samuelsen, a Yup’ik commercial and subsistence fisherman, World War II veteran, Alaska Native corporation leader, and champion of Alaska Native fishing rights and Bristol Bay’s sustainable fisheries.
Two previous Presidents have used OCSLA to permanently withdraw particularly valuable marine habitats from oil and gas development: in 1960, President Eisenhower withdrew an area off Key Largo, Florida, and in 1969 President Nixon withdrew an area off Santa Barbara, California.
