The Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim Sustainable Salmon Initiative is proud to have held a landmark event in 2007: Symposium on the Sustainability of the AYK Salmon Fisheries.
The AYK SSI provides this short documentary portraying the development of the 2007 Symposium. It is a series of clips of interviews with scientists, regional leaders, policy makers and residents from the region. It communicates a sense of the diversity of the participants and the breath of disciplines attentive to this issue.
This symposium featured over sixty-five presenters summarizing and communicating the state of contemporary scientific and traditional ecological knowledge about the marine and freshwater ecosystems that support the salmon fisheries and culture of the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim region. Presenters assessed the past history, the current status of fish stocks and institutional dynamics, and helped to point toward future research directions. A key aspect of the symposium was the opportunity it provided to bridge traditional disciplinary boundaries and broaden the discussion among scientists, salmon managers, residents of the region, and policy makers.
The causes for the changes in salmon abundance are complex and involve interactions among variables such as the number of adults that spawn, the freshwater support system that rears juveniles, and the marine environment that sustains growth, and adult returns to the freshwater spawning areas.
The goal of the Symposium was to communicate what is known, and needs to be known, about:
- Ecological processes that cause change in salmon populations,
- The effects of varying salmon runs on rural communities, and
- The management of salmon fisheries in the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim (AYK) region.
The Symposium featured keynote addresses, paper presentations and panel discussions organized around four thematic sessions:
- Biology and Ecology of Salmon
- Human Dimensions of Salmon
- Fishery Management Strategies: Lessons from Local, Regional, and International Experiences
- Synthesis and Integration: Intersections among Ecology, Local Knowledge, and Management
In addition to summarizing and communicating the current state of contemporary knowledge, the symposium facilitated integration and synthesis through a series of Breakout Sessions.
The purpose of the breakout groups was to generate discussion that cut across and integrated more than one discipline. Ten integrative themes that bridge traditional disciplinary boundaries and research approaches were developed to help focus breakout group discussions.
A peer-reviewed book based on the presentations and posters was published after the symposium:
Pacific Salmon: Ecology and Management of Western Alaska’s Populations (Krueger, C.C., and C.E. Zimmerman, editors. 2009. Pacific salmon: ecology and management of western Alaska’s populations. American Fisheries Society, Symposium 70, Bethesda, Maryland.)
Within this volume are 56 chapters that explore the causes for change in salmon productions and the effects of these changes on rural Alaskan communities. The text covers the entire migration and spawning. The effects of subsistence, commercial, and sport fisheries in AYK salmon populations and on rural communities are also explored.
To obtain a copy of this book please contact Karen Gillis (karen@bsfaak.org).
