Chuck Bundrant is the founder of North America’s largest seafood company, Trident Seafoods, and is worth an estimated $1.3 billion. He, his wife and their adult son gave $75,000 to the Trump Victory committee in August.
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In the southwest corner of Alaska, next to a line of islands that point across the Bering Sea, sits Bristol Bay, home to one of the most plentiful salmon runs on earth. Nearly 20 years ago, a Canadian company named Northern Dynasty Minerals, started planning for a gold and copper mine nearby, which it has said would create jobs. Environmentalists rallied against the project called Pebble Mine, which remained in limbo for years, waiting on permits and environmental evaluations from the federal government. In July, the Trump administration served the company a big win: the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers determined that the mine would in fact not have an effect on the Bristol Bay’s plentiful fish population.
What might at first seem like a classic economy-versus-environment debate is actually more complicated. While the Canadian company was eager to extract riches from the ground, Chuck Bundrant, the billionaire founder of Trident Seafoods was apparently concerned about how the mine would affect his ability to extract riches from the sea.
“It poses a significant risk to the many families, businesses, and communities that rely upon the natural resources of Bristol Bay,” his company, which is the largest seafood business in North America, wrote in a 2019 letter to its fisherman, according to Alaska Native News. (The Bundrants, through a company representative, declined to comment for this story.) Other seafood companies in the area shared similar concerns. The trade group Pacific Seafood Processors Association, of which Trident is a member, has spent $20,000 this year lobbying Congress, where the mine has also been a topic of debate, on issues including the “fish habitat and economic impacts of proposed Pebble Mine,” according to public filings.
A fishing boat captain navigates past the canneries and fish processing plants along the Naknek River on the way to fish the waters of Bristol Bay.
Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Bundrant’s apprehension gained momentum after the Trump administration announced its decision. Donald Trump Jr., known as a big hunter and outdoorsman, tweeted out his concern on August 4. Bass Pro Shops CEO Johnny Morris, a Trump donor, voiced his opposition on Fox News in mid-August.
On August 24, the Trump administration changed tack, demanding that the mining firm fulfill a series of strict conditions to offset potential environmental issues.
Three days later Trump Victory, a joint-fundraising committee for the Republican Party and the president, received a combined $75,000 donation from Bundrant, his wife, and his adult son, according to records filed with the Federal Election Commission. The Bundrants, who had given to Republicans in the past but never to Trump, made their first contributions to the president.
Chuck Bundrant has been fishing the Alaskan waters since 1961, and today has a fleet of 41 vessels that trawl frigid seas and 16 processing plants, mainly spread across the Pacific Northwest. As far north as an island chain 750 miles from Anchorage, his family’s Trident Seafoods employs some 5,000 during peak season in Alaska to wrangle in all the salmon, cod and halibut their nets can hold. They are the main supplier to national fast food chains, including McDonald’s, Burger King and Long John Silvers, whom Bundrant secured in the 1980s with Alaskan pollock, which he was able to sell more cheaply than the more commonly used cod. Forbes estimates sales of the closely held private company at roughly $2 billion, and Bundrant a billionaire, worth $1.3 billion.