The state’s salmon, king crab, and snow crab populations crashed last year, disrupting Native food supplies and traditions—and sending a warning for what’s to come for the Lower 48.
BY KATE NELSON
MARCH 13, 2023
“Fishing is more than simply having means to fill the pantry with my favorite food,” says U.S. Representative Mary Peltola (D-AK), the first Alaska Native (Yup’ik) in Congress.
Like so many Alaska Natives, Peltola grew up fishing for salmon with her family for subsistence.
“On the Kuskokwim, babies teethe on dried salmon strips,” she said. “People eat salmon just about any way you can think of—dried, smoked, jarred, frozen. It’s heartbreaking to witness the crash of salmon populations in river systems we’ve been able to rely on as long as I can remember.”