It got on his shoe, the president said, and that generally is not what you want on your foot. One of the women said something to him. “She said he was happy to see me,” he said to laughter.
Then the president made his way down a line of other fishermen. At one point, they were discussing filleting fish. He called out to the Secret Service. “Do we have a knife?” But none were allowed for the presidential demonstration. He tasted some salmon jerky and said it was “outstanding.” Fishermen have been saying for days they hope he eats some Bristol Bay salmon.
He was given jarred salmon and commented on silvers on ice in a cooler ready to ship.
Then he spoke about Bristol Bay to a pool of reporters, including from the Wall Street Journal, Reuters and Rolling Stone, as well as Dillingham public radio station KDLG.
“Even though we’ve got a cloudy day, I think everybody has a sense of how beautiful this place is,” Obama said. “And the scale of fish that come through here is remarkable. If you catch -- or if you’ve eaten -- wild salmon, it’s likely to have come from here.”
Bristol Bay’s wild sockeye runs are the largest in the world.
He said it is fragile and pristine and needs protection for the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
“We couldn’t have asked for anything better,” Hurley said after the president left for his next stop in Kotzebue.
But a group on the other side of the Pebble fight left dissatisfied. Six people flew in from the village of Iliamna, which benefited from Pebble exploration. Myrtle Anelon, a lifelong Iliamna resident, said they couldn’t even get into the hangar earlier in the day. She said development of the mine would bring jobs and opportunity. While most people’s signs were for salmon or against the mine, hers said “For Pebble.”
The president dances
At the Dillingham Middle School gym, students from the middle and high school packed in along with town leaders for a Yup’ik dance performance by children from preschool on up.
Dance leader Sophie Woods told the president that Yup’ik isn’t spoken much in Dillingham anymore.
“What little they know is what I teach them in their dances,” she said.
They danced and sang and drummed about berry picking and basketball, four songs in all. Obama smiled and clapped along with everyone else.
Then he stood up.
“I’ve been practicing,” he said. For one quick song, he danced with the children up front.
Keep up with the traditions, the president told the children.
“Pamyua!” someone shouted, asking for him to dance again.
But it was time to go.
The 58-foot seiner Pacific Venture grounded on rocks Tuesday evening near Twins Island, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation wrote. A sheen was reported around 7:15 p.m. and Sitka’s Marine Safety Department discovered it less than an hour later.
The vessel was resting on its side until 2 a.m. Wednesday, when it rolled over and sank. “Bearack Obama,” as one sign referred to him in Dillingham, has come and gone.
He may have pronounced “Kenai” with a short "e," but Obama communicated a clear and consistent message about melting glaciers and permafrost, increasing temperatures, and coastal erosion during his three days in Alaska.
Temperatures in the Arctic are rising twice as fast as the global rate and the impacts are visible in Alaska. The work of Alaska scientists has bolstered the case in many branches of climate change research, while Alaskans have seen enough rain in winter to appreciate the changes firsthand. Because of this trip and the attention it has generated, the impact of climate change on Alaska will be a greater part of the national discussion in the months and years ahead.
The dominant political message in Alaska may be about economics, but Obama consistently focused primarily on the environment during his trip, frustrating some politicians. Sen. Dan Sullivan said in a recent interview with the Alaska Dispatch News that the Obama administration contends that climate change "science is clear, it's absolutely 100 percent caused by human activity," but "I'm someone who believes that on that definitive answer that the jury's still out."
In fact, the consensus is not that climate change is 100 percent caused by human activity. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, there is a 97 percent consensus among climate scientists who publish research papers that most of the warming is due to human activity. If a definitive answer for Sullivan means that there will be no dissenters, then the jury will be out forevermore.
This was a trip designed with an Outside audience in mind, focused on one piece of the adaptation puzzle -- largely skipping the intractable challenge posed by the contradiction between economic dependence on the fossil fuel industry and the drive to limit carbon emissions linked to accelerating climate change.
During Obama’s remaining time in office, it’s likely he will continue to nudge federal policies toward a stronger response to climate change, though Congress will continue to object.
In practical terms, Obama’s visit may strengthen the hand of Alaska’s congressional delegation in pushing for more federal money to deal with climate change in Alaska. It is usually easier to keep something in the budget than to insert it in this no-earmark era.
Boosting support for icebreakers is a plus and Obama’s village visits highlighted issues that the rest of the country hasn’t heard much about.