Fish–People–Place: Interweaving Knowledges to Elucidate Pacific Salmon Fate

Environmental Biology Seminar Series. Invited speaker:Dr Andrea Reid, University of British Columbia; this seminar is hosted by the Humphries lab

Online seminar from 11:30-12:30 EST
Online discussion from 2-3:00 EST

Migratory organisms carry high ecological and cultural significance as their cyclic movements through time and space create influxes of nutrients into ecosystems and provide important sources of food to people–imprinting on cultures, bodies of practice and management as well as knowledge systems. However, their often long-distance movements between habitats expose them to multiple and potentially interacting risks. Migratory Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) are threatened by a suite of stressors that jeopardize their wellbeing as well as that of linked social-ecological systems. Here, I examine the ultimate fate of salmon who encounter fishing gears but either escape or are released as by catch, and how this fate is shaped by other factors at play.  To gain an improved understanding of what other potential factors maybe, a second focus here is to identify leading threats endangering salmon and aquatic ecosystems more generally. Different ways of knowing are valued and interwoven in this work, motivated by the Mi'kmaw conceptual framework of Etuaptmumkor “Two-EyedSeeing” which creates a pathway for learning from both Indigenous and Western sciences, using their distinct strengths and methodologies in tandem.

To obtain the Zoom link to participate, please contact allison.ford [at] mail.mcgill.ca