Non-partisan U.S. policy institute the Wilson Center announced on 13 January that its Polar Institute would tackle the Alaskan fisheries crisis with a new video and publication series.
Entitled Empty Nets: Big Changes for a Great American Fishery, the project brings the stories of people on the frontlines to U.S. policymakers and the American public.
“Through our interviews and essays, we hope to amplify the voices of those navigating [the] shifting tides [of change in Alaska’s fisheries],” said Rebecca Pincus and Shannon O’Hare, director and US Polar Leadership Project coordinator, respectively, at the Polar Institute.
“Alaskan fisheries are at a critical juncture. The local populations and global supply chains that depend on these fisheries are at risk of collapse,” they continued in a public letter about the project.
The Polar Institute, a wing of the Wilson Center, is a leading forum for discussion and policy analysis of Arctic and Antarctic issues. Its Alaska fisheries project will feature diverse voices of stakeholders in Alaskan fisheries, such as that of Harmony Wayner, a sixth generation Alaskan salmon fisher from Naknek, and that of research fish biologist Dr. Bridget Ferriss, who wrote about ecosystem science for the series.
Long regarded as one of the world’s most sustainable fisheries, the Alaskan seafood sector has become precarious in recent years. Pincus and O’Hare explained this instability as the product of multiple factors, including “environmental changes, economic headwinds, and foreign bad actors.” Their letter noted that impacts of human behavior, such as escaped hatchery fish, trawling and bycatch, and IUU fishing, were exacerbating the problems, all of which were made more complicated by geopolitical pressures like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has made cooperation between the U.S. and Russia fraught.
“According to data from NOAA, profitability in the Alaskan fishing industry dropped by half 2021-23,” the letter continued. “This translated into over 38,000 job losses across the U.S., and a USD 4.3 billion loss in total U.S. output. Alaska is most impacted, but Washington, Oregon, and California have been hard hit as well. Species across the region are affected, including snow crab, red king crab, as well as salmon.”
“The loss of Alaska salmon is a loss for us all, reverberating across borders and generations,” the authors said.
The Empty Nets: Big Changes for a Great American Fishery project can be accessed through the Polar Institute’s website.