Wanda Deacon
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 to tell the North Pacific Fishery Management Council this needs to change: salmonstate.org/bycatch
Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association and SalmonState collaborated on sharing Wanda’s stories.
Photo by Jacqueline Cleveland
“Since I was born, salmon meant everything to us. We fished every summer. We ate it all winter.
I remember collecting fish hearts on the bank in Anvik when we were little. They would be cutting hundreds and hundreds of fish. It was mostly to feed their sled dogs. We would collect hearts in coffee cans and cook them over an open fire like marshmallows. I call them Indian marshmallows.
The best memory I have was when I caught a ninety-seven-pound king salmon. My husband was fishing. It was my turn to pull the net and he was driving. I thought I caught a stump. At first he was screaming at me to cut the line because the boat was tipping and I was like, no, no, hang on. I finally got it closer and realized it was a big king, so he cut the motor and came to help me and we got it in the boat. It was like five feet long and ninety-seven pounds. I had to have him help me fillet it and hold it up while I was filleting it. That was a big fish. ”
—Wanda Deacon, Grayling, Alaska
Photo by Jacqueline Cleveland
“I miss fish camp. I miss fishing. It's hard not having fish. I especially miss eating it. You have to buy more food. And I swear, this last couple of years it's like I've been craving something. My body doesn't have it so I've been eating a lot of tuna. I think it's so ingrained in us that we're missing it. Our body is literally missing it.
We used everything of the fish. I eat the heads, the eggs. It's very hard. It’s just not there anymore.
In summertime, we don't know what to do with ourselves. You're wandering around like you’re supposed to be busy but you're not.
For two or three years I was not cutting fish because I was in Anchorage a lot with my husband. But, this summer, I'm home all the time. It really hit me that there is no fish for me to cut. It's just strange.”
—Wanda Deacon, Grayling, Alaska
Photo by Jacqueline Cleveland
“I seriously think it's the big trawlers out in the ocean killing the salmon. They don't want the king salmon. One guy was even talking about how he cut 20 feet off of his net and he missed the king salmon. He didn't want them, but the other fishermen won't do it, which I don't understand. Why won't they do that?
I actually fished on those trawlers before. There's a lot of waste coming off of those boats. It's a huge net and they throw everything back that they don't want. It's crazy. They need to stop it. You have to be there to see it. I was. I did see it. It’s for miles and miles. There is so much birds following those boats because they know, too—they kill a lot of stuff.”
—Wanda Deacon, Grayling, Alaska
Photos by Jacqueline Cleveland
“I think the biggest concern is we're not gonna have salmon anymore. I mean, the global warming — the temperature has to be right in the river for them to come up to lay their eggs. It’s too warm for them. And the overfishing down in the ocean — I really think that one has a big impact on how much fish is coming back to the river.
Our younger generation — take care of the planet. Take care of it. That's all I can say. Learn what's good and what's not. Fight for it.”
—Wanda Deacon, Grayling, Alaska