Alaska Orders Pebble Developers to Cleanup Mine Site and Commit $2 Million to Restore Land Alaska will require developers of the stalled Pebble mine to do extensive cleanup and monitoring this summer — and to commit $2 million to ensure disturbed land is eventually restored. The conditions were announced by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and immediately drew a favorable reaction from Bristol Bay tribes, environmental groups and fishing interests. "We are thankful that the Department of Natural Resources took a hard look at what was happening at the Pebble site, rather than simply rubber stamping these permits as was done in the past," said Robert Heyano, president of The United Tribes of Bristol Bay. Pebble said its work this summer will be as DNR has directed, and will protect the public interest. Richard J. Pandolfo, a senior executive at Gloucester-based National Fish & Seafood pleaded guilty to one count of tax fraud Thursday in U.S. District Court in Boston and is set to be sentenced in July, the Justice Department announced. Prosecutors allege Pandolfo failed to pay federal tax on about $90,000 of the $95,000 in “substantial supplemental income” he received from former National Fish & Seafood executive and part-owner Jack Ventola from 2008 to 2012. In other news, cautious optimism about the status of Canada’s Northern Cod fishery was noted during the second annual consultation meeting among the Association of Seafood Producers, the Groundfish Enterprise Allocation Council and the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, which was held in Brussels this week. Meanwhile, Canada's federal government said it would commit $14 million over the next five years to conduct full northern cod stock assessments starting in 2017-18. “We are cautiously optimistic, but must practice restraint with respect to catch increases until a stainable recovery trajectory is confirmed," said Jim Cannon, President of the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership. Nearly 500 Walmart stores in the Midwest market will sell frozen, pre-portioned and seasoned Norwegian Salmon fillets distributed by The Salmon Man. The salmon is supplied by Platina Seafood, which has a sales office in Miami, Florida. The Norwegian Seafood Council said there is an especially high demand for European salmon in the midwest because of a large Scandinavian population in the region. Finally, a competition dubbed the "Lionfish Throwdown" was held in Bermuda last week that challenged chefs to come up with restaurant quality dishes that feature invasive lionfish. This is part of a growing movement to create a consumer market for lionfish that have pushed into Atlantic waters around the Gulf of Mexico. Some local retailers in the Southeast are featuring lionfish in seafood cases.