No one knows precisely what caused the crash, though a number of factors are likely at play, from problems in the ocean, including commercial overfishing and bycatch, to climate breakdown, disease and competition from hatchery fish. ![]() Last year, little more than 32,000 chinook made it upriver to Canada. Then, after dwindling for decades, salmon stocks suddenly plummeted. About 200,000 chinook would push upriver to Canada each year, darting past predators and fishing nets to spawn in the streams where they once hatched. The Yukon River stretches 3,200km (2,000 miles) across Alaska, into the Yukon territory and south to its headwaters. Once in the river, salmon stop eating and rely on their fat reserves to get them through one of the longest, most formidable freshwater migrations on the planet. To me, that is unimaginable poverty, of the ecosystem, of culture, of spirit James MacDonaldĪs many as 450,000 chinook once entered the mouth of the Yukon River each summer, after spending five years in the Bering Sea, says Teslin Tlingit elder Carl Sidney, who attended the Tatchun salmon ceremony. “Even our vitamins.” I can’t imagine a world without salmon. “Our name, culture, language, ways of knowing and doing, our intergenerational teaching, storytelling, ceremony – everything surrounds salmon,” says Tom. ![]() Many here fear an integral part of their traditional lifestyle and spiritual identity is about to disappear for ever. Communities throughout the Yukon that have the fish at the heart of their culture are relying on expensive frozen salmon. This year marks the lowest run of chinook ever recorded in the Yukon River – down a catastrophic 95% from previous levels, according to experts. The Yukon River’s salmon runs, once abundant with fish, have declined by a catastrophic 95%
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