Native communities in Alaska face crisis as integral way of life disappears: 'I look at salmon as my ancestors'

Native communities in Alaska are facing scarcities of salmon — an animal integral to their lives and cultures — as warming waters from an overheating planet harm these fish.

What's happening?

BBC reported on the salmon shortages, which are being attributed to warming rivers and overfishing. While some salmon are migrating to cooler waters to the north, others are simply dying because of the heat.

Why are salmon shortages concerning?

The crisis is putting an immense strain on Native villages, the inhabitants of which have relied on wild salmon for subsistence and as an important cultural symbol for generations. Eva Dawn Burk, a Native Alaskan from the Nenana village in the Yukon, told BBC that half the state's tribes are in a salmon crisis.

"You have so much respect for living beings as a Native person," Burk told the publication. "I look at salmon as my ancestors, and then as my children and grandchildren. The salmon relatives and my relatives have been living in relation for all these years."

Declines in salmon populations are also concerning for the environment. They serve as food for other species, and they also help transport food and nutrients among the ocean, estuaries, and freshwater environments. 

What's being done about the salmon crisis?

In early 2024, Alaska and Canada agreed on a moratorium that suspended Chinook salmon fishing along the Yukon River until 2030. However, Burk contends that this is unfair to tribes, as large trawlers in the ocean continue to waste salmon as bycatch. Therefore, tribal leaders are coming together to denounce industrial trawlers, the BBC reports.

Burk also joined the North Pacific Fishery Management Council advisory panel to help guide fisheries management and increase tribal representation in discussions. 

Meanwhile, salmon conservation campaigns are underway across the globe. For instance, the Washington State Department of Transportation and the Department of Fish and Wildlife are working together to remove barriers that block salmon migration. In England, the removal of a dam that blocked the passage of Atlantic salmon has enabled the species to spawn in an area that it had not had access to in over a century.

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