Yukon River Salmon Crisis Gets National Attention

The Yukon River’s salmon crisis has taken a toll on those who rely on fishing as several seasons have been closed. The Washington Post had a detailed report on the Yukon River’s struggles. Here’s a sample:

Lost with the decline in the Yukon’s salmon is more than just a food source. For now, people living here cannot connect with family at fish camp and share knowledge about how to catch and prepare salmon.

“We’re watching our way of life slipping away,” Sager said.

For Potts-Joseph, supermarket food just isn’t as healthy for Indigenous people like her. “The food that we get from the land, it works the best with our DNA,” she said. “And it’s something our people have eaten and lived off for thousands of years.”

Researchers attribute the decline in salmon to a constellation of factors. “Like a lot of 21st-century environmental problems, it doesn’t have a singular cause,” said Bathsheba Demuth, an environmental historian at Brown University who is writing a book about the Yukon.