Artifishal: The Fight to Save Wild Salmon — Patagonia Films

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: We've been stalking salmon since the time of Darwin. How far do we go to manufacture wildness? It's not working. [00:00:09] Speaker 2: The people want it to be wild. And that's what we're fighting for. [00:00:30] Speaker 1: Humans typically adopt a command and control approach to environmental problem solving. Here's the problem, we can engineer a way around it. Technology is great in so many realms of human experience. But when you try to apply manipulation and control of ecosystems through technology, you're often successful early on, but then problems creep in later on. [00:01:29] Speaker 3: One of the things that our modern society has done is to industrialize all the living things around us. We have factories for living things. And that includes fish. Humans believe everything is for us, so if there are animals in the world, surely they are for us, and surely we should just do anything we want with them or to them. And isn't that great? Well, I don't quite see it that way. Fish are wild animal populations. They're not made to or evolved to or really capable of being used at the rate that people use them. The whole myth of the Garden of Eden is a place where everything was granted and everything was beautiful. And then because of human hubris, we were doomed to a life of toil. We are certainly casting ourselves out of the garden and dooming ourselves to a life of toil through our hubris. We are always looking for the garden and the garden of Eden. [00:02:49] Speaker ?: We are always looking for the garden of Eden. We are always looking for the garden of Eden. We are always looking for the garden of Eden. We are always looking for the garden of Eden. We are always looking for the garden of Eden. We are always looking for the garden of Eden. We are always looking for the garden of Eden. We are always looking for the garden of Eden. We are always looking for the garden of Eden. We are always looking for the garden of Eden. We are always looking for the garden of Eden. We are always looking for the garden of Eden. We are always looking for the garden of Eden. We are always looking for the garden of Eden. We are always looking for the garden of Eden. We are always looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:05:08] Speaker 4: We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:05:09] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:05:14] Speaker 4: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:05:17] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:05:19] Speaker 4: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:05:38] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:05:47] Speaker 4: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:05:49] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:05:53] Speaker 5: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:06:18] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:06:20] Speaker 5: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:06:27] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:06:38] Speaker 5: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:06:42] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:06:47] Speaker 5: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:07:11] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:07:14] Speaker 6: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:07:38] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:07:39] Speaker 7: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:07:47] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:07:54] Speaker 8: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:08:17] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:08:22] Speaker 8: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:08:43] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:08:44] Speaker 9: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:09:09] Speaker 8: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:09:24] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:09:26] Speaker 8: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:09:56] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:09:57] Speaker 2: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:10:44] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:10:52] Speaker 1: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:11:08] Speaker 10: We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:11:09] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:11:13] Speaker 10: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:11:15] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:11:16] Speaker 3: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:11:28] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:11:38] Speaker 3: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:11:41] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:11:42] Speaker 3: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:12:38] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:12:39] Speaker 11: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:13:11] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:13:26] Speaker 11: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:13:29] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:13:39] Speaker 11: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:13:47] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:13:48] Speaker 11: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:13:52] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:13:54] Speaker 11: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:14:52] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:14:53] Speaker 11: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:15:15] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:15:16] Speaker 11: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:15:48] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:15:49] Speaker 11: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:16:08] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:16:13] Speaker 11: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:16:19] Speaker ?: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. [00:16:22] Speaker 11: We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. We are looking for the garden of Eden. So now we are operating not just one, but two hatcheries on a river that was restored for the benefit of wild salmon. And we missed this huge opportunity to allow the river to return to being truly wild. [00:17:05] Speaker 12: This is a team of interns and staff. They are collecting our long term data on salmon use of the Elwha near shore. We then take these data, compare them over the decade that we have been recording the information, and look at the evolution of the Elwha near shore as the dam removal progresses. As wild fish now recruit into this near shore area, we see these large numbers of hatchery fish. Our concern is that the hatchery species may be challenging the wild species that are trying to recover. They are vulnerable to these hatchery fish, either through predation or physical displacement or competition for resources. The risk is that we're actually stunting the river's ability to restore because these fish that literally are the backbone can't restore because they're being pressured by these continued hatchery releases. I do think that humans by nature have an engineering aspect. They like things to be orderly. They like things to be predictable. So that's what hatcheries give people. The flip side of that is wild and wilding your watershed. Chinook, 152, 146. Wilding does have great uncertainty to it. That's how wild works. Wild is scary, but it's a really important place in people's soul. Did you guys see how we walked when we were walking up here? [00:19:19] Speaker 13: We're walking along the trees so we can look back into these two reds here where we know fish spawn. The males are the easiest to see, usually. So if there's males on there, more than likely there's going to be a female in there. And then we'll sit there and concentrate because the females are really hard to see. They're like transparent half the time. She's moving up. She's right, straight between us. You see the tail? [00:19:46] Speaker 14: Yep. You see the tail? [00:19:48] Speaker 13: Yep. [00:19:49] Speaker 14: Moving up. She's digging. Oh yeah, she's digging right there. Try it. It's going to be pretty deep. [00:19:54] Speaker ?: It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful. [00:20:44] Speaker 14: Typically, what we see on a female is about 4,500 eggs. Then we'll do the males now. We'll keep them separate, keep the milk separate from the eggs. Then after we're done, we'll check them for a coated wire tag. This is the part that has the coated wire tag embedded in the head, and that would have information on the fish. [00:21:15] Speaker 13: I know some people are going to view this as being brutal and barbaric, but this is what it takes to collect our brood stock at the Elwha facility. It's a tool, we're a tool to help recover the stock. When we miss a female, we feel like we've bailed the fish itself because we know that those eggs aren't going to survive as well as they would at the hatchery. We brought the eggs in from the cooler, lay the buckets on the floor, and then divide the females for how many males we have, and put the milk in there, mix it, let it sit for another 30 seconds, mix them again, and then let them sit for another 30 seconds. And we weigh down 13 pounds into a bucket, let it drain all the ovarian fluid and milk, put them in iodafor for an hour, and then we'll lay them down until they eye. That's effectively artificial spawning in a hatchery. [00:22:46] Speaker 15: There's been a lot of effort over the last several decades cataloging all of the genetic variation in populations of salmon and their cousin's trout. Salmon have developed an incredible amount of diversity that allows them to be particularly successful in the stream in which they were born. [00:23:12] Speaker 3: A huge river system will have huge salmon. Some of them used to run up to 100 pounds in the biggest rivers that had the most challenging falls that they had to jump over. And then little coastal streams, they had mostly smaller ones, even though it was the same species, But they were genetically totally different. Even in one river where you have one species of a certain size, you may have the fall run and the spring run of that species. And those fish are completely different. They don't interact or interbreed at all. [00:23:49] Speaker 16: We've been stalking salmon since the time of Darwin. When we first discovered how to take eggs and take milk and combine them, hatch fish, put them back into freshwater, we literally knew nothing of evolutionary ecology. We would have been flying blind. We now know that taking wild fish and exposing them to a hatchery environment, breeding them, hatching them, rearing them for any amount of time really, changes the genetic makeup. [00:24:20] Speaker 17: Fish are very complex critters that have evolved in Mother Nature over thousands of years. And there's things that happen in hatcheries that don't put them through those pressures that they face out in Mother Nature that makes them so they're a fit fish. What happens is you create a genetically inferior fish at the hatchery through all the domestication. And then those fish go spawn with fish in the wild, and that actually can degrade the genetics of the fish in the wild so they're not as fit either. [00:24:51] Speaker 7: What we do with fish hatcheries is the same thing as growing a chicken. Economically, it makes more sense to put a bazillion chickens in one place, and it produces a really inferior chicken. You know, if nature can produce X number of fish in a river, let's dump more young fish in there, and it's absolutely wrong. It's not increasing our number of wild fish. It's eventually going to extirpate all fish. [00:25:26] Speaker 3: Life diversifies in order to survive, and humans do the opposite. We simplify in order to make things easier for ourselves. And by imposing simplification on a world that has taken millions of years to so wondrously diversify, is a violent act on life itself. [00:25:55] Speaker ?: We've got to get rid of the fish. We've got to get rid of the fish. We've got to get rid of the fish. We've got to get rid of the fish. We've got to get rid of the fish. We've got to get rid of the fish. We've got to get rid of the fish. We've got to get rid of the fish. We've got to get rid of the fish. We've got to get rid of the fish. We've got to get rid of the fish. We've got to get rid of the fish. We've got to get rid of the fish. We've got to get rid of the fish. We've got to get rid of the fish. We've got to get rid of the fish. We've got to get rid of the fish. We've got to get rid of the fish. [00:26:16] Speaker 18: Well, the fish toss is that we take the fish that return to the hatchery. So these are all the fish that were raised in the hatchery. We have this toe to fish, and I think there's probably a couple hundred fish in each toe, and they get frozen to a solid block, and we just drop them down and break them up and re-freeze them so they don't stick together no more, and prep them for all the school groups. [00:26:54] Speaker 14: Can you guys say good morning to Sheila and Emily? Good morning. [00:27:10] Speaker 10: Good morning. [00:27:11] Speaker 14: Good morning. We talked about the five reasons why we're doing this a little bit ago. Does anybody remember? Can you get those? [00:27:17] Speaker 19: Yeah. [00:27:18] Speaker 14: The trees. The trees. [00:27:20] Speaker 20: What about the trees? [00:27:21] Speaker 14: The trees need the nutrients. The nutrients, right? [00:27:23] Speaker 20: So we partner with the Niswali Indian tribe who provides the carcasses from their hatchery program, which used to be considered a waste product. They're actually full of marine-derived nutrients because when they leave the river system, they're about yay big. When they come back, they're just carrying so much goodness from the ocean. So we teach this concept to the students. The Chinook and steelhead in this watershed are threatened species. So we inspire them to take action by getting these carcasses back into the upper watershed, which is actually very nutrient-poor. [00:27:53] Speaker 10: The Chinook and steelhead in this watershed is a great way to get the water. [00:27:54] Speaker ?: The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. [00:28:03] Speaker 10: The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. [00:28:05] Speaker ?: The Chinook and steelhead are the water. [00:28:06] Speaker 10: The Chinook and steelhead are the water. [00:28:07] Speaker ?: The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. [00:28:18] Speaker 19: The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. The Chinook and steelhead are the water. [00:28:28] Speaker 10: The Chinook and steelhead are the water. [00:28:33] Speaker 19: Salmon, I think they are very important for the ecosystem. Many animals eat them. Well, 138 vertebrae animals eat the salmon, specifically. I like the salmon-tossing idea. I think it's a good help. But at the same time, I don't think it's the best idea. The ecosystem runs a specific way for a specific reason. We can try and help them by reducing pollution, but I don't think we should directly interact with the salmon wildlife and all wildlife and let them run by their self and make their own adaptations. [00:29:22] Speaker 21: The conversation is, are there any wild salmon left? Show me a wild salmon. Show me, you know, an abundant number coming back of wild salmon. And we just don't see it here in the Nisquale. As much as I'd rather have wild salmon, our hatchery salmon are important to us, continuing our culture and our traditions. You know, for us, this is our church. You know, this is our medicine here, being on this river. And I think people have a hard time understanding that. Because this is what our ancestors did since the beginning of time. You know, they fished, they hunted, they gathered. They protected what we have and that's how we lived. And now we're in 2018, our salmon are depleting. These are the raceways I was telling you about. [00:30:09] Speaker 22: 300,000 in each one. Yeah, 10. That's a lot of fish. He's going right now pulling all the dead ones out. [00:30:19] Speaker 21: We're managers as Native American people. That's what we do and we manage. But we also have to adapt to the times. [00:30:44] Speaker 23: People have a tendency to get enamored with what they wish was. Instead of what is. There's a certain segment of the people in this area that want to blame hatchery fish for the decline of wild fish. The biggest problem is too many people. And salmon and humans don't co-exist real well. We're going to build our houses along the rivers you need. We're going to build our towns in the estuaries you need. We're going to log the forests you need. We're going to take our drinking water out of the river you need. We made that deal a long time ago. We made the compromise already. And by saying that you don't need hatcheries to provide some sort of fishable abundance. You're saying you're going back on that deal. There's a lot of runs in the Northwest right now that if it wasn't for hatchery fish they'd be extinct. Because they're prodigy hatchery fish. Where those fish have blinked out they use hatchery fish to bring them back. I would like to see us make hatchery fish as much like wild fish as possible. I'd like to see us make them do as little harm to wild fish as possible. And I'd like to replace habitat, replace culverts, do everything you can to reduce the human footprint on salmon habitat. And make sure that hatchery and wild fish both are here forever. It kind of offends me when people say that I don't care about their habitat or I don't care about conservators. Hunters and fishermen and sportsmen have always been at the front of conservation and habitat reforms. If there's a problem we notice it. And we like to address it not just worrying about it. The reason that I am involved in conservation efforts when I was younger is because I was hoping I'd see a result. But as I get older I'm starting to think that's less and less likely. Because again we don't seem to as a society be willing to address the real issues. Nature's gone. You're viewing this through some Disneyland idea that we can still do all this bad stuff and recover salmon. Nope. [00:33:32] Speaker 24: The southern resident killer whale population that I've been studying for 42 years began a serious decline around 1995. It was almost a hundred whales. We're down to 74 right now. Salmon and orcas are just predator prey. They're like that. If you have a decline in the food, you have a decline in the whales. Most of those fish right now are hatchery produced and they're getting smaller and smaller every year. They averaged 22 pounds and now they're averaging 8 and 10 pounds. And the wild runs are being exterminated by the hatchery production. And the whales will follow the wild fish to extinction. The icon of the Northwest is starving. [00:34:39] Speaker 25: A mother orca whose calf died after birth is still carrying her baby 17 days later. Researchers say that they're now concerned for the mother's health. [00:34:50] Speaker 24: We had this whale coming in, had a brand new baby. One of our colleagues saw it, took a picture of her. And by the time our boat got there 30 minutes later, she was dead. And the mother started pushing the dead calf around. Okay, toward her, toward her. Go ahead. Stand baby in mouth. Yes. Yeah. See if she does it again. Well, she pushed this dead baby for 17 days. You know, it was a tour of grief that went on and on and on. [00:35:33] Speaker 4: We want to welcome you to our last task force meeting for this, for this year. [00:35:41] Speaker 24: Governor Inslee convened this task force to save the southern resident killer whales. The easy fix that our own Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife says, Oh, well, we'll just increase hatchery production by 50 million fish. Well, wait a minute. Why don't you look at what's happened with hatchery production and see that it's not working? And you want to do more of what doesn't work? Nobody wanted to hear stop fishing. That was almost untouchable. It wasn't about whale or fish requirements. It was all about commerce. Everybody wants to save the whales. Nobody wants to change our own way of life. It's a very difficult choice for our society to look at what we're doing, what we have done over the years in terms of fisheries management, and change the paradigm. I didn't realize until about a month had passed how depressed I was. I'm seeing all this before my very eyes and documenting it. And that's the part that is troubling to me is that I'm going to be in charge of keeping track of the extinction of these animals. But if it's a lesson to our society that, hey, we've got to change, maybe that's what I have to do, we're going to die of a loneliness of spirit with all the creatures gone. [00:37:33] Speaker 26: Every year, Idaho Power partners with other biologists to raise and release 6.8 million Chinook and Steelhead. The next generation of fish needs next generation ideas. Our innovative approach maintains abundant fish populations, giving anglers a chance to land brag-worthy steelhead. Fish on! [00:37:54] Speaker 9: Hatcheries are pawns in a game of political power. The whole thing is about money. Fishing is a huge industry, and every state is competing with each other for those dollars. It's not about conserving our resources, it's perverting our resources on a short-term bet to get tourist dollars in. In fact, federal dollars to support fish and wildlife agencies is based on how many license sales there are in each of those states. The internal finances is that it provides power and wealth to the agencies themselves. To build a new hatchery, it's millions and millions of dollars of high-extensive automated piping and flow systems so you have lots of temperature control on lots of different fish-rearing stations so you can raise different species up to different sizes and maximize production. [00:38:47] Speaker 27: So we've got the water costs, electrical costs, building maintenance costs, and just the feeding costs of the fish. So we're looking at plus or minus 20 million dollars in assorted costs throughout a year. It's a major business, and there's portions of that business that 20-plus employees are doing year-round. [00:39:11] Speaker 28: Hatcheries are a perfect example of political pork. They spread the hatcheries around their state. They're in almost every county of the state. They target them on key members of the state Senate and the state legislature. As a result, they buy the support of that local person. [00:39:30] Speaker 7: These hatcheries are a subsidy to commercial fishermen, recreational fishermen, and it's being paid for by all the taxpayers. [00:39:41] Speaker 11: And I think one of the main reasons why it's important that people understand what's going on is just purely the waste of their money that's happening. In Washington State alone, there are 174 hatcheries producing more than 190 million salmon every year. On the West Coast, over 90% of the quote-unquote "wild-caught" salmon you find in markets actually came from hatcheries. Between California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, citizens pay for the release of almost 280 million fish per year. Last year, between the United States, Canada, Russia, Korea, and Japan, 5 billion salmon were released into the North Pacific. [00:40:21] Speaker 8: When I wrote my first book, the Bonneville Power Administration was spending about $140 or $150 million on their program. Since 1982, they've spent $15 billion. The General Accounting Office did a survey and they showed that hatcheries consume 40% of that. [00:40:47] Speaker 29: The big question is, who pays for raising the fish and who gets the benefits? Fish that go out of the Columbia River, circle around Alaska, some fish even as far as Russia. Your survival rate goes down to .001 or so. Some of those fish, we figured, cost over $1,000. [00:41:13] Speaker 11: The Enneat hatchery on the Upper Columbia was producing spring Chinook salmon that were costing $68,031 per harvested fish. State and federal agencies plant more than 100 million rainbow trout in waters across the United States every year. In some of our most protected wilderness areas, places high in the mountains where you're not even allowed to ride a mountain bike or pick a wildflower. Taxpayers spend money every year to drop millions of non-native fish by airplane or helicopter just so visitors have something to catch. Billions of dollars of citizen public money is spent to support something that clearly does not work. We're on a path to where there eventually will be no fish and we will have spent billions of dollars to get to that point. [00:42:12] Speaker 1: The ironic thing is that fish know how to do all of this. They know how to live in those environments, they know how to reproduce. So if we allow fish to get back to being fish and doing what they do in those environments in pulling back some of our infrastructure, restoring streams, we reap the benefits free of charge. [00:42:44] Speaker 30: The concept in the earliest days of settlement in the West was that it was a God-given right to take from it what we could. Times change, needs change, understanding of our place in the universe changes, and the world's becoming a smaller and more crowded place. But this understanding that we have to take care of the land, that it's not infinite, it won't continue to produce and provide for us unless we look at it and manage it responsibly. That is a relatively new concept. Managing our water resources is important in our agricultural pursuits, but also this water has tremendous values to this fishery. And this fishery is one of the great fisheries in the world, and our local economy is based on that. So for us to succeed, we need our community and our river systems to be as healthy as possible. Going back a ways, this is really the place in Montana where the concept of a wild fishery started. There were hatchery raised fish that were put in here based on the idea that the more fish we had in the river, the more fish would be caught by fishermen, the better our economy would be. Then, lo and behold, they discovered something very surprising. [00:44:34] Speaker 31: We were doing estimates now in the Madison, and we were seeing a lot of young brown trout in the lower river. But the next year they would be gone. One of the first things I kept seeing is we stocked the best waters. The waters that had the best fisheries were the ones where we were putting catchables. I proposed a study. Leave Norris alone, don't stock it. We'll take Varney, not stock it. And take Odell Creek, which has never been stocked. Let's stock it and see what happens. The first year that we didn't stock Varney, the upper river, the population of brown trout doubled. And, of course, when we stocked Odell Creek, the population halved. We didn't know we were doing damage. Well, there's two out there and we put two more in, we've got four fish now and that's better than two fish. Well, that's not the math that works in reality. Once that information became available through the Madison Odell studies, that maybe our dollars were being lousily spent. In fact, we were destroying what we were trying to protect. Well, they said any waters that had self-sustaining trout populations could not be stocked. Period. And it came policy. [00:46:03] Speaker 32: Shortly after that program was initiated, you saw the population of this river just skyrocket with wild fish. We started our fly shop in 1979, a few years after the hatchery program was absolved on the Madison River. And we were fortunate to catch that wave of a wild trout fishery. We saw an increase in the number of anglers that came to Montana, came to the Yellowstone area and specifically southwest Montana to experience those wild fisheries. And that's what really kicked in the fly fishing businesses at that time. People are more attuned to a healthy river because they see what's happened here. They see the whole cascade of everything that benefits because of a wild trout fishery, including a local economy. [00:47:11] Speaker 31: The one thing that came out of this to me is the change in behavior of the humans when they saw that they won't become a given fish. That they become more vigilant. And habitat becomes more important when they realize that's how they get their fish. [00:47:32] Speaker 33: As most of you already know, we had a major eruption occurring at 8:32 approximately this morning on Mount St. Helens. It does appear that the northwest flank of the mountain seems to be gone. [00:48:02] Speaker 34: When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1981, it was a massive explosion. It tore off about one-third the top of the mountain. Most of that affluent went down the Toodle River Basin. [00:48:13] Speaker 35: Look at this, it doesn't even look like the same country. I can't believe I've camped up in this area. It doesn't look like any place I've ever been before. [00:48:21] Speaker 34: The consequences at the river were startling. The upper canyon of Toodle was totally de-vegetated. There were chasms of volcanic effluent. Anything living in the screen was virtually destroyed. It brought back a sense of hopelessness. At that point, there was the feeling that evolution and recolonization of rivers may take tens of thousands of years. As a result, that meant that no more hatchery fish were put into it. What became evident in the Toodle River system is that the steelhead in particular came back above what they were prior to the eruption five years later. By seven years later, they more than doubled. So those first years at the Toodle River were a prime example of what wild fish can actually do in the most absolute adverse conditions if they are not constrained by having to intermix with hatchery populations. Unfortunately, as the Toodle River began to show that it can produce fish, back we went to the hatchery programs again. Hatchery numbers went up, wild fish went down. Same old story. Loss of faith in nature is the problem. Nature knows how to make fish work. The best thing that we as human beings can do, and if the salmon and steelhead ask of us, just get out of our way. [00:50:00] Speaker 36: Salmon famously have to fight their way upstream to spawn, but thanks to hydroelectric dams, that's become increasingly difficult. But don't worry, because as we found out recently, America is on it. [00:50:13] Speaker 5: I'm Ben Tracy in Washington State, where we're going to introduce you to a pretty sweet piece of technology known as the salmon cannon. [00:50:34] Speaker 36: In your darkest moments of despair, when you see a world torn apart by war, I want you to remember that video and think, we can do great things. We can do great things. [00:50:52] Speaker 3: Humans believe we can do anything and everything all the time. And that can-do spirit has gotten us far and made a lot of changes in the world. Certainly made a lot of us able to continue living at gigantic population densities. But it has its limits, and we don't understand anything about those limits. An example of a good myth is Icarus. Icarus was a tinkerer and he wanted to free himself from the bounds of earth and gravity. He wanted to fly. So he made wings. He made wings of wax. And he flew. Because he didn't sense any limits, he flew too close to the sun. The sun melted his wings and he came crashing down to earth. So the greater truth in that is beware of hubris, exercise some humility and be careful when you're tinkering. [00:51:58] Speaker 37: I'm 55 years old now. I've been living with my summer fishing all my life. I try to follow my heart. I mean, I'm not rich in money, but I've had 6,000 days on summer rivers all around the world, which makes me rich. The summer fishing in Norway is central to all the small towns that are located on a river. And in the old days, the salmon used to be the thing that was feeding the people. It's special, special, special to Norway. Now it's also special in the other way because the second biggest industry is this fish farming thing that is now, it's threatening to kill. What's the original fish? We were so stupid. I was so stupid because when they started fish farming, I thought, oh, hey, this is the solution to everything. We farm the fish and they don't have to kill our wild fish. They don't have to kill the fish I want to fish for and the stocks will go up and all will be fantastic. In very short time, we learned that the sealers were killing the wild small living in the river. Fewer fish were coming up. You know, they say that one of these farms out here, they produce as much shit in the whole town of Oslo and they just leave it in the fjord. When it's polluted enough, you move to another location and you can pollute another place. Then there are more fish escaping from Norwegian fish farms than all the Norwegian wild salmon rivers produce. And they mix with the wild stock and they destroy the unique DNA of the fish. Alta's got the biggest Atlantic salmon in the world. There are more 50-pounders caught here than anywhere else. There's quite a big difference on the river that I see today. The DNA on the Alta salmon is not like it was before. [00:54:31] Speaker 7: I see no difference between a fish farm and a hatchery fish. Because of gene pollution. You get escapees from these fish farms. Sometimes millions of fish escape. And then they breed with wild fish, numbing down the genes. We're reversing natural selection. We're devolving these fish. [00:54:54] Speaker 37: I really always wanted to see one of these farms. We got into our wetsuits. Then we jumped into the sea. And we sneaked up to one of these farms. I knew I was going to see a lot of fish. But I didn't think it was going to be that bad. It was so full of sick fish. They had fungus. They looked like S's. They were wounds big as my hand. Nobody should eat this. You show this to the moms. They want to feed their kids with this. They will never buy one of these fish. It was like if you should walk into a farm where you have cows that would have big wounds bleeding and lying down barely breathing. Who would eat that? No one. But these things are happening under the surface. You know? Nobody knows about this. The thing is we lost one thing here and we lost respect for the ecosystem. We are the guys that should protect the rivers. Protect them from all kinds of farms and hatcheries and all this. My responsibility is not to feed the people in the world. Okay? If I have a responsibility, it is to say when I see things are wrong with what I like and what I love. And that's the rivers and salmon. The solution is there. And that is to get these into the closed parks. If it will double the price of the salmon, it's worth it. What's the price of an ecosystem? What is it worth? [00:57:14] Speaker 38: So Captain R1, what is your emergency? My husband and I are on our boat in Secret Harbor and the middle fish pin is breaking apart. It's huge. And the whole thing is buckling. There's a forklift that looks like it's about ready to go in the water. It's pretty dramatic to me. [00:57:35] Speaker 39: Well, what just happened was that there was a catastrophic failure. One of the net pins off Cypress Island completely imploded. The fish that escaped are Atlantic salmon. They're not Pacific salmon. We're talking 305,000 exotic species are now polluting Puget Sound. These fish are going to be entering into our rivers, competing with our wild fish in the spawning grounds, competing with them for food, bringing diseases and parasites and viruses to these wild fish. And it's a disaster. [00:58:25] Speaker 40: When I heard that 300,000 Atlantic salmon escaped into the ocean environment, I immediately kind of dropped everything and knew that this was something that I needed to go and document because I knew that no one else was getting the underwater side of things. I didn't expect to see the level of destruction that I saw. The pens were totally split open and completely destroyed. There were holes all through them that the Atlantic salmon had escaped from and there was a few fish left gasping caught in the nets. But other than that, the fish were gone into the marine environment and clearly unaccounted for. [00:59:12] Speaker 24: Galactic eyes. Galactic eyes. Galactic eyes. Galactic eyes. We ask that you remove your diver from the water immediately. This is classified as trespassing. We suggest you please halt these operations. Cypress Fish Farm over and out. [00:59:28] Speaker 40: It's an extremely charged scene. It seems like it's a big secret what's going on under there and the last thing that these companies want is people to go under and actually see what's going on because then these stories that they're telling the public, it's so easy to poke holes in them when you get footage of what's actually going on on the farms. [00:59:47] Speaker 39: The concept of an emergency response plan is it's a bit humorous. It's basically tell the commercial fishers and the recreational fishers to go out and fish because now we have more fish for you. It's like telling the water. It's like telling the people when the Exxon Valdez spilled. Free oil. Go collect it. Every single day our public trust is being undermined by the pollution that these pens are putting into our sound. The viruses, parasites, pharmaceuticals that are going into our waters. The industrial model is to make as much money as you can, as quickly as you can, regardless of the environmental consequences. What we're seeing today, what we've seen over the last couple of days, are those environmental consequences coming home. [01:00:48] Speaker 11: It turns out that Washington is the only west coast state that allows open water net pen salmon farms. To me, it's really an outrage that this is even allowed. You know, I think anybody who's concerned with the state of the environment and our planet thinks about the future, and especially if you have children. You start to feel like, OK, what's the world going to be like for them? It feels really important to me that they participate in protecting their own future. We're so busy these days that to be unified on these things, whether it's fighting to make sure that there are salmon in the future or going out to catch fish. Those become really precious times for a dad who's watching his kids grow up really fast. We thought we'd go out there with a few boats and wave some signs around and protest it. But it turned out that people from all walks of life that use the sound or enjoy living near the healthy sound were also outraged. The Suquamish tribe was there to protest. There were commercial fishermen there, there was a whole fleet of kayaks, there was a lot of sport fishing boats. I mean, there was even a guy on a jet ski carrying a sign around. We spent the few days ahead of time making some signs to carry and laughed about sort of what we would say and what the slogans were. But underlying it all, I think the kids feel like they're able to participate in the things they care about. I think we made our point because now here we are months later and there's actually three pieces of legislation that are pending affecting net pens. [01:03:14] Speaker ?: We are not going to be able to do so. We are not going to be able to do so. [01:03:15] Speaker 41: We are not going to be able to do so. We are not going to be able to do so. We are not going to be able to do so. We are not going to be able to do so. We are not going to be able to do so. We are not going to be able to do so. We are not going to be able to do so. We are not going to be able to do so. We are not going to be able to do so. We are not going to be able to do so. We are not going to be able to do so. We are not going to be able to do so. We are not going to be able to do so. It is unconscionable that when we are spending tens and tens of millions of dollars to protect and recover wild salmon, we would allow an invasive species to be introduced to our ecosystem. [01:03:41] Speaker 14: Mr. President, there are 35 yea, 12 nay, too excused. [01:03:44] Speaker 26: Having received a constitutional majority, second substitute Senate Bill 6086 is declared passed. The title of the bill will be the title of the act. [01:03:59] Speaker 42: The title of the bill will be the title of the bill. [01:04:27] Speaker 43: The Yurok belief is that we have been here since the beginning of time. At one point, this earth was a lonely rock in the universe floating by itself. And it began to get sad and its tears became the ocean and it finally came to be what we have today. The Walge, the spirit people, started creating this world. And one of the things they had done was made a relationship between us and the salmon. The salmon were put here so they could sustain us. And that we would always have a food source. And that way we would always live and we would always be prosperous. We also have a story of if we don't take care of this world, then there are no more salmon, then there will be no more need for Yurok people. [01:05:27] Speaker 2: The 2002 fish kill was really the canary in the coal mine. It was a low water year, but ag got their water. If you divert that much water and flows get so low on the Klamath, you will have some kind of major fish disease outbreak. And that's exactly what happened. 70,000 adult salmon died, all within the Klamath River. The dead fish were lining the banks, you know, three, four layers deep. And it smelled like death. In a wild river, nothing like that happens, right? That is not a natural thing. [01:06:14] Speaker 44: The future, if it goes unchanged, it is going to be the destruction of salmon species on the west coast of the United States. The tribe voted not to have a commercial salmon season this year because of the low projected numbers. And the subsistence amount was the lowest I think I've ever seen. Tribal members used to live almost solely on returning fish runs. And now this year we get less than one fish per person. How can you possibly look at that and not realize that there is a gigantic problem here? These reductions of the salmon runs, the big picture is, is they're affecting our health. We know those omega oils, those omega threes and sixes in salmon are very heart healthy. That's why we have a lot of elders that live to ripe old ages. But the point is, is that what's going to happen down the road? What's going to happen to our people? [01:07:27] Speaker 43: When your society, when your culture, when your belief is connected directly to the world around you. When you're raised with a sense that you are a part of everything in your surroundings, in your natural environment. It does something to your community's psychology and mindset when you start to see that world crumble and break. As the decline of the salmon runs come back, you can see a direct correlation with the decline of the West as a people. [01:08:05] Speaker 2: It's just a disruption of the whole sort of cycle of the tribe and what we do as a people because that fishing isn't there. And I think when that happens, then all of us feel pain. You know, it's like we grieve for that. A lot of times when you're grieving or when you're hurting over something, you turn to drug and alcohol. And so we're seeing spikes in drug and alcohol rates. There's an opioid crisis on the reservation right now. There's a suicide crisis on the reservation right now. All of these things are connected in part because when you take away the river, you take away the fishery, you take away that core component of who we are as a people. And then it kind of falls apart and people start getting in trouble. That's where we are now. And that's why you have all those other sort of issues arising in our community. [01:09:26] Speaker 43: The traditional game of sticks, it's actually one of the few pieces of Yurok culture that never went away. You have a stick and you have a tassel. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. And you do that any way you can. [01:09:45] Speaker ?: Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. [01:09:46] Speaker 10: Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. [01:09:50] Speaker 43: Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. [01:10:01] Speaker ?: Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. [01:10:05] Speaker 10: Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. [01:10:08] Speaker ?: Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. [01:10:09] Speaker 43: Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. [01:10:26] Speaker ?: Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. Take the tassel and make it go through the goal. [01:10:29] Speaker 43: I think it lends a lot to why when we get into conflicts or when we get into fights like the dam, we don't care who the biggest, richest man in the world is, who owns it. Because we'll play up every day of the week. We don't care. [01:10:45] Speaker 10: Hey, hey, ho, ho, where the dams are got to go. Hey, hey, ho, ho, where the dams are got to go. [01:10:53] Speaker ?: I'm down the climbing, bring the salmon home. [01:10:57] Speaker 2: We all kind of came back together and decided that this was when we were going to fight. The FERC license for the dams expired. There was this opportunity to pursue dam removal. And so that's where the fight went. [01:11:23] Speaker 45: Federal, state and local lawmakers has come up with a way to do what kind of and Congress could not get the water and the fish in the Klamath River flowing freely again. [01:11:32] Speaker 29: We're starting to get it right after so many years of getting it wrong. [01:11:40] Speaker 2: This is the crown jewel of salmon country. This is it right here. The people want it to be wild. They want it to be what it was before the dams, before colonization, before agriculture. The work that the tribe is doing is to redirect the energy to a place where we're focusing on that comprehensive restoration to get the wild runs back as opposed to agreeing to some kind of short-lived political compromise like the hatchery ideas that really just put band-aids on, you know, gaping wounds. The approach is we're here forever and we want those wild salmon to be here forever and that's what we're planning for and that's what we're working on. Having a wild river, having the wild salmon, it puts the community back together and it gives them purpose and it allows us to fulfill that initial promise that we made to the creator, right? About taking care of this river and living in a balance with us. And when you do that as a people, you feel good. That's like the ultimate self-determination. That's the ultimate sovereignty is to be able to live in a way that is consistent with your own cultural values. And that's what we're fighting for. [01:13:16] Speaker 3: You could say that everything we learn, we learn from the stories that we are given. You could also then say that all the problems we have are symptoms of stories that were wrong, stories we told ourselves and stories we passed on where we misunderstood things deeply. [01:14:04] Speaker 1: If hatcheries were successful and we're addressing the situation, we wouldn't be having this discussion today. The underlying causes of the problems are still there. And after all these years, we're still having to put fish out there every year to keep them going. Perhaps it's time to pull back and question, is this the right path forward? How far do we go to manufacture wildness before we realize what we're really doing and think about alternative approaches like protecting and restoring wild things? [01:14:50] Speaker 7: There's no right way to do the wrong thing. The right thing is to work on our rivers that we've destroyed and turned into sewers and dammed up and fix that so that we have wild fish. This little issue is just a reflection of what we're doing to the whole planet. It's more than just our relationship with fish. It's how we're trying to control nature rather than work with nature. A life without wild nature, a life without these great iconic species is an impoverished life. If we lose all wild species, we're going to lose ourselves. [01:16:00] Speaker ?: guitar solo [01:16:30] Speaker 46: Where there's a wind always blowing my mind Red rose the river [01:16:47] Speaker 42: The taste of the morning's still much sweeter than wine The sun as true as ever [01:17:00] Speaker 46: I go rolling in the water Come on baby, let the river roll on Come on baby, let the river roll on Come on baby, let the river roll on Come on baby, let the river roll on Because it's sweet Couldn't be sweeter We was feeling back twice already Sitting in the pouring rain Once we was a rock Rolling down the hill Now we are at the hill Trying, trying to keep the rock still Before you know it We'll be rolling in the water Come on baby, let the river roll on Come on baby, let the river roll on Come on baby, let the river roll on Come on baby, let the river roll on Come on baby, let the river roll on [01:19:08] Speaker ?: Good and sweet [01:19:09] Speaker 46: Couldn't be sweeter Watch the colors of the morning fly I may not be getting any younger May not be getting any younger But my lord, I'm feeling so alive Come on baby, let the river roll on [01:19:34] Speaker ?: Come on baby, let the river roll on Come on baby, let the river roll on