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Article: Running wild: why Copper River salmon is worth $20 a pound, and why it may disappear forever.
- Article from:
- Sunset
- Article date:
- March 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Sunset Publishing Corp. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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This is going to be tricky," says George Covel as he guns the engine of his 30-foot aluminum jet boat and turns toward the beach. Cresting over the back of a wave, the boat plunges into a trough and rides up the back of another swell, crashing through into another trough. The deck is awash with the cold, gray waters of Alaska's Copper River Delta.
Tucked into the remote southeast corner of Alaska's Prince William Sound, the delta is a 700,000-acre wetland of rivers, sloughs, and ponds that, in spring, make up one of North America's major waterfowl staging areas. The delta is dominated by the Copper River--itself roughly 10 miles wide near its mouth--which pours ...