Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust On Southeast Alaska And Climate Resilience

The following press release is courtesy of the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust

As new year begins, Southeast Alaskans voice ideas for climate resilience in final SeaBank Chronicles podcast episode

[Sitka, Alaska, January 6, 2025] – As Southeast Alaskans begin a new year, memories of 2024’s glacial outburst floods, landslides, and parched salmon streams have inspired 14 residents from six regional communities to speak about building a climate-resilient future in the SeaBank Chronicles podcast episode titled “Seeking Shelter,” scheduled for release on Wednesday, January 8. “People from all over the region offer their personal ideas for adapting to a changing climate, “ says producer Beth Short-Rhoads. “So this seventh and final installment of our first season is really a message of hope from Southeast Alaskans to their fellow citizens. It’s a lovely start to 2025.”

The SeaBank Chronicles, a project of the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust (ASFT), is an immersive sound experience that delivers science lessons in the style of radio theater. Focusing on the ecosystems of Southeast Alaska, it blends sound effects, music, and Short-Rhoads’ own voice as a narrator. “The final episode conveys a sense of togetherness in this time of climate uncertainty by bringing together a number of Southeast cities, towns, and villages,” she says. 

Communities represented include Petersburg, Thorne Bay, Kasaan, Craig, Juneau, and Sitka with participants ranging from Indigenous leaders and commercial fishermen to retired loggers, mariculture experts, artists, tradespeople, and educators. In “Seeking Shelter” listeners encounter a fierce coastal storm, then join a group of Southeast Alaskans gathered around tea, venison stew, and a roaring fire to share climate resilience strategies. “Some voice clips were recorded in person and others were sent in by voice memo,” Short-Rhoads says. “Woven with sound effects, you get the sense of everyone being in the room together. That’s what it feels like to live in Southeast.”

Many climate resilience strategies heard in “Seeking Shelter” mirror those found in ASFT’s work on creating climate adaptation plans in local fishing communities, where changing stream and ocean conditions threaten seafood-dependent economies. “ASFT believes the first step in resilience is building a team,” Short-Rhoads says, “which is what happens in the podcast, with members sharing a diversity of ideas. Drawing on Indigenous knowledge, a switch to second growth logging, restoring fish habitat, reinforcing marine infrastructure, running for public office—participants bring these strategies to the episode, in their own unique voices.”

On its resource page, the SeaBank Chronicles also links to climate adaptation plans from seven Southeast Alaska tribes and city governments. “Southeast Alaska is truly a place where we can seek shelter,” Short-Rhoads says. “We have these ancient forests of huge trees, coastal wetlands, and deep offshore waters that offer a measure of stability, but we also find shelter in our cities, towns, and villages. They’re full of people used to problem-solving. So we find refuge in our lands and waters, and also in our friends and neighbors.” 

The seventh and final episode of SeaBank Chronicles Season One will be released on January 8 and can be heard at www.thealaskatrust.org/seabankchroniclespodcast, Apple, Spotify, and other platforms. For more information about ASFT’s climate resilience work, including the SeaBank Chronicles podcast, contact Natalie Sattler at 907-738-1286 or program.director@alfafish.org.