As Dan Sullivan once again tries to deceive Alaskans about his abysmal record on fishing, people should be reminded of Sullivan’s recent financial gains from farmed fishing and his long history of greenlighting projects that would have destroyed our fisheries. 

“Anti-Salmon Dan Sullivan can try to run from his anti-Alaska, anti-fish record – but he can’t hide,” said Alaska Democratic Party Chair Eric Croft. “After repeatedly greenlighting anti-fish projects at the state level that would have wiped out our fisheries, Sullivan has had 12 years in the U.S. Senate to clean up his record – and instead he cashed out on farmed fishing stocks to get richer and broke congressional finance law to hide it from Alaskans. Don’t let Dan Sullivan fool you, he’ll sell out Alaska fisheries to the highest bidder at every turn, and that’s why we’ll send him packing this November.”

Sullivan broke congressional finance law when he “fail[ed] to report two stock sales” worth up to $65,000 in Mowi – the world’s largest producer of farmed salmon. 

Dating back to his time as the head of Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources, Sullivan approved a controversial coal mine on the Chuitna River that would “obliterate” 11 miles of important salmon-spawning streams in Southcentral Alaska. The mine would have completely dewatered the streams in order to mine coal set to be exported to China. The mine was called a “full-scale assault” on salmon in the river and faced intense opposition from locals and the fishing community. As a result of his greenlighting the project, Sullivan was called “anti-salmon” and was criticized by the fishing community for siding with “outside companies at the expense of every day Alaskans.” 

State Representative Les Gara on the Chuitna River coal mine in 2011: “Destroying a wild salmon stream to sell coal to China is about the worst idea in Alaska’s proud history of salmon protection.”