And now a story from Alaska, where conditions on the Yukon River
or forcing native people to change how they live and eat. The river
has faced major salmon shortages in recent years, and that's blamed
on warming waters. Olivia Eberts of Alaska public media as this report.
Any monarch near the mouth of the Yukon River. You pick elder James
Cameron is bringing home a box of frozen donated chump salmon.
Um, was one of the most abundant types of Semin on the Yukon.
Until its numbers unexpectedly crashed last summer. This charm is
likely the only chum his family will eat this year.
So
It's going to help us.
Taste salmon
months. We prefer to get our own salmon put away for ourselves.
But since we don't have it, you know, I'm happy for these. Normally
in summer you pick families like cameras catch smoke and put away
hundreds of these fish for the winter in a process known as subsistence
fishing, But now that's not allowed due to the collapse. State scientists
have attributed the salmon crashed to marine heatwaves caused by
climate change.
Now, most lower river residents will only get one or two state donated
salmon the whole summer.
And no donation can replace the loss of a way of life more than 15,000,
Alaskan native and First nations. People are experiencing this loss
from the Yukon River's mouth to its headwaters in British Columbia.
Cultural ways. It's not going to be the same anymore.
Ah, because all the work I used to do in subsistence helping my parents.
My kids are my grandchildren are not able to do that. Now. The many
who used to work in the Yukon River's fish industry are now taking
whatever summer jobs they can get. Captain Darren Jennings and first
mate Justin Camera used to work as drivers for a fish processor holding
fresh catches down river to the plant. Now they're taking donated
frozen fish upriver to deliver to lower Yukon tribes.
On the way up River, Jennings stops off at a fish can or some friends
are staying for the summer.
Alan can like most Lower river, Beit groups spending summers at fish
camp.
But most of the nearby camps are empty. Now his neighbors would rather
stay in the village now that there are no chums and kings due process.
He's track would be full, You know?
From front to back.
And would get all our subsistence done.
In
No time. You know. This year, they can only use a handful of their
nets, the smaller ones geared towards white fish and a species of
salmon called hump Ease.
Neither species is as nutritious or tasty as chum and chinook Afghans,
men's time that would otherwise be used for fishing. Repairing his
nets. He has barely seen chum and Chinook this summer.
Last summer, the annual upriver migration of chum salmon dropped
to 1/10 of its average size. This year, the annual king migration
dropped to about 20%.
There's no quick solution for climate change caused issue like this
one. But many river residents are calling for an end to regulations
that allow Bering Sea commercial fishermen to scoop up salmon bound
for the Yukon River and a process known as bycatch. Some scientists
say with a crash this drastic getting every female fish back into
the river matters a whole lot.
Got a Blue River from you. Monarch in Saint Mary's. The Long Thompson
family receive a box of several frozen chum and sockeye salmon donated
from the state of Alaska
has cut already.
See what this
Since they already headed and gutted it. Go down this way and then
take the guts out.
Cut the head off.
Open it this way and clean that blood out. It's been two years since
Julian's 11 year old daughter Nicole has had the opportunity to cut
fish, so she's a little out of practice. Pretty sad, though. We have
to wait for fish to come one or two at a time. If we had a lot more
in pretty sure she typed it down a little quicker.
Really do Mr Fish camp.
This is hardly enough fish to last the family through the winter.
They plan to eat it The very next day for PBS news weekend I'm Olivia