Viewpoints: Our cultural survival is tied to salmon's survival
By Amy Gulick / For the Herald
When the first Alaska Airlines flight carrying Copper River salmon arrives at SeaTac airport in May, the press clambers to greet them.
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This celebration of wild salmon, the icon of the Pacific Northwest, is an annual ritual. We would be remiss, however, if we didn’t also celebrate where the salmon that grace our restaurants, backyard grills, and Pike Place Market seafood stalls originate.
There was a time when the salmon we ate came from our home rivers: the Skagit, Columbia, even the Duwamish. But today, more than 90 percent of all wild salmon we eat comes from Alaska; places like the Copper River, Taku River, and Bristol Bay. Alaska is the salmon state, the last best place in North America where wild Pacific salmon still support ecosystems, communities, cultures, economies, and valued ways of life.
What does this mean for Washington, Oregon, Idaho, northern California, and southern British Columbia where many salmon populations are less than 10 percent of their historical abundance? Where some populations have gone extinct? And what does it mean for Alaska, whose salmon are not immune to the impacts of logging, mining, urbanization and climate change?
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/viewpoints-our-cultural-survival-is-tied-to-salmons-survival/