Peter Pan Seafoods was to donate fresh king salmon from Dillingham for the event. Speakers were to include John Lowrance of Leader Creek Fisheries and David Harsila of the Alaska Independent Fishermen's Marketing Association.

An earlier rally June 10 in Dillingham attracted more than 600 fishermen and their families.

Organizers said they expected several hundred fishermen to turn out in support of wild Alaska salmon and against plans for large-scale mining activities. The fishermen are concerned that the proposed Pebble mine could devastate fishing families, subsistence communities and local businesses that depend on salmon, clean water and the region's abundant renewable resources. Many of the fishermen hail from families who have fished for generations in Bristol Bay, the world's most renowned wild salmon fishery.

Last year a spontaneous rally in Naknek, with three days notice, attracted more than 100 commercial fishermen who were there for the start of the sockeye salmon fishery.

The object of their concern is the proposed Pebble project, which Bristol Bay fishermen, environmentalists and others say could pollute the rivers that feed into Bristol Bay.

Sean McGee, a spokesman for Northern Dynasty Mines, said the project will have to satisfy any and all relevant environmental standards and regulations that are in place at the time the company applies for permits. McGee said the time frame for applying for permits is still late 2008 and early 2009, and could be still later than that.

Izetta Chambers, a Naknek resident whose family runs a fish processing plant, is one of the organizers for the Naknek event. Chambers said she felt the Pebble project “is just too great of a risk to even consider in our spawning habitat.”

Chambers said her family relies heavily on the fisheries resources and that Bristol Bay wild salmon is starting to make huge strides in the marketplace.

Mining, by comparison, “has a horrible legacy of toxic pollution. We're hoping to stop it before it starts,” she said.