LONDON -- Six prestigious UK jewelry retailers and designers representing 260 stores have pledged their support for Bristol Bay by announcing that they will not buy gold from Anglo American's proposed Pebble mine, a massive open-pit operation being considered in the bay's headwaters.

The Bristol Bay watershed supports the world's most productive wild sockeye salmon fishery, which is critical to the state's economy and to the livelihoods of many Alaska Native communities. The UK is the largest consumer of Bristol Bay canned sockeye salmon.

UK jewelers Goldsmiths, Beaverbrooks, Mappin & Webb, Watches of Switzerland, Fifi Bijoux and April Doubleday took this step at the invitation of Alaskans who seek to protect wild salmon, clean water and their traditional ways of life from the damaging effects of industrial metal mines.

"We at Beaverbrooks support the protection of Alaska's Bristol Bay watershed from large scale mining," said Mark Adelstone, managing director of Beaverbrooks the Jewellers.

"We need to be mindful and respectful of the Bristol Bay salmon fishery and the communities that depend on it. We feel that the precious metals that we sell need to be mined responsibly and in environmentally friendly ways and if this means looking to other places to source gold, then so be it."

In pledging not to source gold mined at Pebble, the UK jewelers join eight U.S. retailers who endorsed the pledge last year, including Tiffany & Co (which has seven stores in the UK), Helzberg Diamonds, and Ben Bridge Jeweler.

The proposed mine has generated an unusual and diverse array of allies, including Alaska's commercial fishing industry, more than 140 sportfishing businesses, the Alaska Intertribal Council (a consortium of 231 Alaska Tribes), and numerous conservation groups.