The 60-day public comment period on the Environmental Protection Agency's proposal to protect Bristol Bay's salmon population from the proposed Pebble Mine closed Friday, Sept. 19, but not before plenty of fishermen signaled their support for agency protection.

Bristol Bay fishermen and processors, Alaska's fishing industry as a whole, plus commercial fishing groups and businesses nationwide sent in comments supporting EPA protections for Bristol Bay. According to the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, preliminary counts for the 60-day comment period show that more than 625,000 public comments were submitted in support of EPA protection, with Alaskans alone accounting for 20,000 comments.

Bristol Bay sockeye salmon fishermen hope their support of Environmental Protection Agency plans to protect the regiion's salmon resource will help thwart the proposed Pebble Mine. Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay photoSimilar support has been seen during the multi-year effort to protect the region from large-scale mining, the association says. Upwards of 1.5 million comments in support of protecting Bristol Bay have been received during that time.

"A massive open-pit mine planned for the heart of the salmon-rearing headwaters of our nation's largest and most valuable salmon runs is not worth the risk," says Sue Aspelund, the association's executive director. "And based on these numbers, the American people clearly agree."

Well, then it must be time to declare victory, no? It's game over, right?

Not just yet. Now that the public comment period is over, the EPA will tally up the comments and then review them before issuing its Final Determination before Feb. 4, 2015. But according to the association, there's still work to do to ensure that the Bristol Bay resource will be protected.

Aspelund says the association is asking the agency and the White House to move as quickly as possible "to implement strong protections for the thousands of people who depend on Bristol Bay salmon for their income and way of life." According to the association, Bristol Bay's sockeye runs support over 2,800 family fishing operations and 14,000 jobs nationwide.

"We want to ensure our fishermen can continue their businesses without this threat hanging over them," Aspelund says.

And, there's still a lot fishermen and others can do to keep the pressure on this process, says Katherine Carscallen, the association's sustainability director.

"Communications to elected officials stressing the importance that EPA is allowed to carry this process through to finality is very important," Carscallen said on Sept. 22. "Because EPA has mentioned that late comments will be marked late, but still counted, we decided to keep our take-actions up through the weekend, but by the end of the day, it will be adapted to direct communication to the White House."

So everyone who wants to ensure that the Bristol Bay resource continues to receive the protection it deserves shouldn't light up a victory cigar just yet. If proponents keep up the good work that's been done so far, that satisfying stogie will be lit soon enough.