Imagining Salmon Rivers of the Future

While salmon rivers such as the Deatnu/Tana and the Yukon are closed for lack of salmon returning to the rivers, both scientific literature and  artistic projects  on the state of wild salmon and salmon rivers proliferate. Realizing that wild salmon is in such a critical state that it might be lost as a living wild species, academics, artists and indigenous peoples protest its demise through various channels such as research papers, the International Year of the Salmon, the Venice Biennale, and local indigenous activism by rivers and at the international political level. A panel at the conference Arctic Mediated Geographies drew together these diverse efforts to imagine what salmon rivers may represent in the future.

A round-table with researchers, activists and artists (some of which are one and the same) were invited to the  2022 Mediating Arctic Geographies  conference to discuss the future of salmon based on their long-standing and recent contributions to the field. Common to all of these individuals and the groups they represent, is the concern for salmon as an iconic species of the northern hempishere, faced with the real possibility of a future where salmon rivers are changed forever. The questions most under discussions were about what kind of futures are imagined by artists, academics and activists, in the event that salmon are not fished, but only cared for? And does art, activism or research have the greater power to influence salmon policies and management practices?