Salmon, Subsistence, Pebble Mine and More: Waterside Chat with Melanie Brown of SalmonState

01/26/24 • 60 min

SalmonState's Melanie Brown joined the Marine Fish Conservation Network for an online Waterside Chat on January 23rd, 2024. Melanie fishes commercially in Bristol Bay in Alaska, the fourth generation of her family to make a living on the water. In her role as outreach director at SalmonState, Melanie builds spheres of influence to address marine policy challenges. In a conversation that started with a poem and ended with a song, Melanie and host Tom Sadler talked about:

The status of the Pebble Mine fight, which now moves to a federal district court, though Melanie hopes for an eventual legislative solution
How she was born into a fishing family, with her great-great grandfather still fishing when she started at ten years old (she got her permit from him when he retired) and her children following her
Her work with SalmonState, which grew out of Trout Unlimited's original organizing against Pebble Mine and now covers other issues in the Bering Sea and waters around Alaska, particularly bycatch
How the Pebble Fight brought together sport fishing interests, commercial fishing interests and Alaska's First People around protecting Bristol Bay
How mining development in Canada threatens U.S. waters, because "everything flows downstream"
The status of Magnuson-Stevens reauthorization, plus the work to derail a late Trump administration rule that would open 28 million acres of land to mining and oil & gas exploration
How wild salmon and other species including caribou play a big role in feeding people in Alaska, particularly the state's First People

And much, much more!
Mentioned in this Episode:

SalmonState: https://salmonstate.org/
Help keep protections in place for over 28 million acres: https://www.alaskalands.org/take-action
About the Magnuson-Stevens Act and its bipartisan tradition: https://conservefish.org/healthy-oceans/magnuson-stevens-act-upholding-a-legacy-of-success/

Watch more Waterside Chats or subscribe to the podcast: https://conservefish.org/resources/waterside-chat/
The Marine Fish Conservation Network’s Waterside Chat series connects people who depend on healthy oceans and fisheries with the issues that directly affect them and their communities. Each episode the Network’s Deputy Director Tom Sadler talks with different guests about ocean policy and fisheries management topics. He engages them in genuine and thoughtful conversations about what policy decisions mean for people’s livelihoods, communities, recreation, and coastal ways of life.
Join the Network's email list to learn about future Waterside Chats: https://conservefish.org/join-our-email-list/

The status of the Pebble Mine fight, which now moves to a federal district court, though Melanie hopes for an eventual legislative solution
How she was born into a fishing family, with her great-great grandfather still fishing when she started at ten years old (she got her permit from him when he retired) and her children following her
Her work with SalmonState, which grew out of Trout Unlimited's original organizing against Pebble Mine and now covers other issues in the Bering Sea and waters around Alaska, particularly bycatch
How the Pebble Fight brought together sport fishing interests, commercial fishing interests and Alaska's First People around protecting Bristol Bay
How mining development in Canada threatens U.S. waters, because "everything flows downstream"
The status of Magnuson-Stevens reauthorization, plus the work to derail a late Trump administration rule that would open 28 million acres of land to mining and oil & gas exploration
How wild salmon and other species including caribou play a big role in feeding people in Alaska, particularly the state's First People

And much, much more!
Mentioned in this Episode:

SalmonState: https://salmonstate.org/
Help keep protections in place for over 28 million acres: https://www.alaskalands.org/take-action
About the Magnuson-Stevens Act and its bipartisan tradition: https://conservefish.org/healthy-oceans/magnuson-stevens-act-upholding-a-legacy-of-success/

Previous Episode

Waterside Chat with Kevin Scribner - Fisherman, Poet and Advocate

Kevin Scribner joined the Marine Fish Conservation Network in December 2023 for an online Waterside Chat with host Tom Sadler. Affectionally known as "Scribfish" by friends and colleagues, Kevin is a fisherman, poet, and advocate known for his eclectic and wide-ranging interests related to marine resource issues. Kevin and Tom covered a lot of ground (and water), including:

How "if you are what you eat", Kevin has become a salmon many times over
How salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest are hurt by bad management practices on dry land ("What runs off the land is how the land talks to the water")
How to work with landowners in a market-based program to improve their practices and help them earn a "Salmon Safe" designation
How this model can be applied to other species and other places, which is why he's recently been working with fishermen in Japan and Hawaii
How using local resources to solve local problems can help keep food systems (and people!) working during times of duress
Why you have to be a dreamer and an optimist to keep fishing

Listen to the full conversation to hear about these topics and much more!
Mentioned in this Chat:
https://salmonsafe.org/
https://wavefoundation.org/
https://localcatch.org
Watch this Chat on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQhJjuhgs_4
Watch more Waterside Chats or subscribe to the podcast: https://conservefish.org/resources/waterside-chat/
The Marine Fish Conservation Network’s Waterside Chat series connects people who depend on healthy oceans and fisheries with the issues that directly affect them and their communities. Each episode the Network’s Deputy Director Tom Sadler talks with different guests about ocean policy and fisheries management topics. He engages them in genuine and thoughtful conversations about what policy decisions mean for people’s livelihoods, communities, recreation, and coastal ways of life.
Join the Network's email list to learn about future Waterside Chats: https://conservefish.org/join-our-email-list/

Next Episode

Salmon, Filmmaking and Bristol Bay: A Waterside Chat with Mark Titus

Mark Titus joined the Marine Fish Conservation Network for a Waterside Chat on March 26, 2024. Mark's journey from fly-fishing guide in Alaska's Southeast to founder of Eva's Wild is a story of passion for salmon and the future of the planet. Mark wrote and directed The Breach and The Wild, two influential films about salmon and the fight to protect Alaska's Bristol Bay. His third film, The Turn, shines a light on the "twin-towers of imperative action" for salmon survival: permanent protection of Bristol Bay and removal of the lower four Snake River dams.
Mark and host Tom Sadler sailed through a wide range of topics, including:

How a Snoopy rod & reel led Mark to a life of salmon
How he started at the bottom of the film world to learn how to create his own movies
Why he considers our destruction of salmon habitat as a breach of our contract with nature (hence the title of his first film)
Ongoing threats to salmon habitat in Alaska, including more litigation over Pebble Mine and toxic mining chemicals leaching into waters in Canada and flowing into the U.S.
How Eva's Wild, his salmon-distribution company, grew out of a food truck that accompanied his film screenings and featured wild Alaska salmon
How the company gives part of its profits to Indigenous-led efforts to protect and restore salmon habitat, supporting a sustainable economy based on a regenerative resource
The words of Indigenous leader Billy Frank Jr., who said, "As the salmon go, we go"
And, of course, much more!

In this episode:

Connect with Eva's Wild: https://evaswild.com/pages/connect
Links to Mark's projects, including YouTube links for The Breach and The Wild: https://linktr.ee/markdtitus