Presenter: Anna Mattson – Environmental Science
Faculty Mentor(s): Mark Carey
Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Communication: How and Why
For this project, I traveled to Cordova, a small fishing town in Southeastern Alaska, for two weeks to talk with locals about how glacial melt is affecting their lifestyles and how they are adapting to environmental changes happening in Alaska.
I discovered that while millions of salmon still come up the Copper River annually, rising temperatures have led to increased glacial melt, and fish counts are declining. According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, in 2021, wild sockeye salmon numbers fell 37.4% below the recorded 10-year average.
The decline of salmon throughout Alaska concerns local communities, like the Native Village of Eyak, whose connection to the area grows out of generations of relationships with salmon.
Salmon are critical to Native Village of Eyak culture and subsistence practices. The Eyak are “dependent on the returning wild salmon to this day.”
Journalism acts as a conduit between scientists, climate events and people — it allows anyone to have a voice and holds institutions and lawmakers accountable.
As more extreme climate events occur, communicating these crises has never been so important, especially as it relates to elevating marginalized communities.
My piece, titled A State of Unease, will be published in Science Insider this summer.