"Fish are where it's at in Bristol Bay," said Tom Hawkins, senior vice president and chief operating officer for BBNC, the regional Native corporation representing some 7,600 shareholders of Eskimo, Indian and Aleut descent. "If you are proposing something that may impact fish, you are challenging the existing economy."

The corporation is on the cusp of what may be its best economic year ever, thanks in large part to the good prices for Bristol Bay's famed red salmon. While the leadership of BBNC remains staunchly protective of the region's world-renown sockeye salmon fishery, they are open to responsible development in both oil and gas exploration and in mining.

"We are perceived in the region as being in somewhat of a neutral position on Pebble," a gold and copper mine being considered by Northern Dynasty Mines Inc., said L. Tiel Smith, land and resource manager for BBNC. "We are for responsible mining."

BBNC officials acknowledge their shareholders are divided over the prospect of the mine, despite the fact that Northern Dynasty's chief operating officer, Bruce Jenkins, is a fisheries biologist by training and holds a master's degree in fisheries.

Board members of BBNC also have taken a fairly supportive position of seeing the Northern Aleutian shelf on the schedule for outer continental shelf leasing, if studies show there are good prospects. The corporation also supports onshore oil and gas exploration. But in both instances only with assurances that the work and subsequent transport of oil would not threaten fisheries.

"If there are any prospects in Bristol Bay, they are most likely in the North Aleutian Shelf," Hawkins said.

BBNC is seeking future job opportunities for its shareholders, 50 percent of whom are 40 years old or younger. This is the generation that will inherit responsibility for the regional corporation, and its high-tech subsidiaries, which has footholds in everything from environmental and engineering services to customized fuel management and hazardous waste cleanup.

"There is a large and growing number of young Alaska Natives and they need opportunities," said Jason Metrokin, director of shareholder and corporation relations.

To that end, BBNC has utilized a number of training programs, including annual village leadership workshops in Anchorage, usually held during the first week of December. The village leadership workshops are aimed at more traditional community leaders on many different levels, Metrokin said.

The Training Without Walls program is sponsored by BBNC and Choggiung Limited, the village corporation for Dillingham, and is more specifically aimed at future leaders. Applicants for this program, which alternates between Anchorage and Dillingham, must be between the ages of 25 and 55, have a four-year college degree, five years work experience and be currently employed. Students meet twice for two days, three times a year as a group, the rest of the time work one on one with a coach on individual management training goals and objectives. "It's a self-motivating program," said Metrokin. "You get what you put into it."

The corporation also participates in the University of Alaska's Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program, which offers pre-college preparation programs for high school students with an interest in engineering fields. This program also serves to bridge the time between the senior year of high school and first year of college, and offers mentors and tutors at the college.

"For engineering firms, like several of our subsidiaries, this is a definite resource for us to draw from," Metrokin said. ANSEP is on the university's Anchorage and Fairbanks campuses, and is affiliated with similar programs at the universities of Washington and Hawaii, and is open to all Alaska Native students.

Hawkins said he sees the various training programs not only as a benefit to individual shareholders, but also as a talent-spotting opportunity for the corporation. All of BBNC's subsidiaries offer shareholders opportunities in job shadowing, internships and summer hires, he said.

BBNC subsidiaries, like Kakivik Asset Management LLC, which specializes in nondestructive testing and inspection, also have their own individual training programs at the BBNC building in Anchorage. Kakivik's contracts include pipeline testing for the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. and ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc.

Kakivik is the Yupik Eskimo word used to describe a small pouch that contains items critical to survival in the harsh Alaska wilderness. The company, a venture of BBNC and Ch2M Hill Inc., offers a variety of services and technologies in fields ranging from radiographic and ultrasonic testing to corrosion engineering and electromagnetic acoustic transmission.

SpecPro, a wholly owned engineering and technical services firm, saw its revenues grow by more than 50 percent in the first six months of the current fiscal year. CCI, which specializes in removing hazardous wastes, earned nearly $4 million in the first six months of the fiscal year, with contracts including clean up of the wreck of the Selendang Ayu, which sank last fall in the Aleutian Islands.

Bristol Engineering and Environmental Services, the oldest of BBNC's subsidiaries, suffered some financial setbacks due to a bad contract, but with new contracts hopes to break even at the end of the fiscal year.

Another of the corporation's successful subsidiaries is PetroCard Systems, headquartered in Kent, Wash., which provides fuel and value-added fueling services to businesses operating fleets of commercial vehicles. "Even with rising gas prices, this company has done extremely well," Metrokin said. "It's been a success story."

For all its financial successes, though, BBNC is mindful of the economic problems its shareholders face, in rising costs of fuel, transportation and living in rural Alaska.

"The majority of our shareholders have relocated," Hawkins said. "Our biggest village is Anchorage."

The key to the future of residency in the villages of Bristol Bay in large part lies in bringing low cost energy to the region, he said. If the Pebble mine begins production, it would in all probability lower the cost of energy to Lake Iliamna-area communities, but not necessarily those in the rest of the vast Bristol Bay region.

So the corporation continues to interact with its shareholders on a broad range of topics, challenging its existing and future leaders to find solutions in issues ranging from commercial fishing, mining, and oil and gas exploration to cost effective energy, he said.