After toxic levels of mercury were found in an Admiralty Island harbor seal in 2015, conservationists and subsistence hunters are still wondering if a Juneau-based mine is to blame.<\/p>\n
The problem, they said at a Tuesday public meeting, is that answering that question requires more science than the state requires.<\/p>\n
The Southeast Alaska Conservation Council and Friends of Admiralty Island gathered Tuesday at the Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall to introduce a petition asking for increased environmental monitoring at Hawk Inlet, where the mercury-laden seal was taken. Greens Creek Mine, the world’s second-largest silver producer, has operated there since 1989.<\/p>\n
Angoon subsistence hunter Joe Zuboff said residents of the small Admiralty Island community are “crossing their fingers” that the mercury levels found in the 2015 seal were the exception, not the rule. Zuboff travels the roughly 50 miles to Hawk Inlet in winter to hunt seal, but like many Angoon seal hunters, Zuboff has avoided taking seal in the area as a precaution.<\/p>\n
“We’ve been monitoring these lands for quite a while and we’ve never had this battle of, can our children eat these foods? Are they going to be affected?” Zuboff said. “I hope that it isn’t too late.”<\/p>\n