John Deck
While Yukon River peoples forgo traditional ways of life to conserve wild salmon, trawlers continue with business as usual — bycatching a documented 141 million pounds of marine life on average each year. This bycatch includes king salmon, chum salmon, halibut, herring, squid, crab, whales and more.
Trawlers trail nets the size of football fields to catch everything in the water column. When they drag the bottom, they rip up seafloor habitat and crush bottom-dwelling species in a way that never comes up to the surface to be counted. And “midwater” trawlers, which are allowed to trawl in protected areas, drag the bottom up to 100% of the time.
Right now, they’re allowed to bycatch an unlimited number of chum salmon. Take action: salmonstate.org/bycatch
Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association and SalmonState collaborated on sharing John Deck’s stories.
“Salmon is what keeps our families together. In the summertime, they come home to fish with each other and be with each other. People used to come back from Anchorage and all over to get that sense of community.
Where did all those millions of pounds of king salmon and all the other fish go? [Trawlers] threw it over! That’s what everybody says. Millions of starving people on this earth and you throw it away like it's nothing! Why the heck would you do that?”
—John Deck, Yukon River
“Manifest destiny — it's going on in Alaska as we speak. You can't manifest destiny us no more. That's what you're trying to do with the fish. You did it with the buffalo, remember? It didn't work. Now, what about our moose? They're killing them like they're going out of style.
I speak for the animals. We're nothing without our animals. I'm an animal. So are you. We're all part of this Earth. ”
—John Deck, Yukon River
“I see changes in the seasons. Rhythms. Winters have been getting warmer and warmer.
Big difference since I was young, when I first moved to Holy Cross. By October, we'd all be running around in the snow. Nowadays it’s not like that. It's not like that at all.”
—John Deck, Yukon River
“This is your country. Don't let anyone ever tell you different. Be loud and proud. Never disown your tribe. Start listening to your elders more. Sit down with them. Talk to them. Be proud of who you are and where you come from. That's what I like to see.
This is a new beginning, not the end.
It's up to you to take your language. They took it away from you and they do everything in their power to keep it away from you. Don't let them destroy you from within.
Let us start subsistence fishing again. We did it before. We never took it all! Move those trawlers out one more mile. Let us replenish our fish the best we can.”
—John Deck, Yukon River