Urban harvests: Food security and local fish and shellfish in Southcentral Alaska

Abstract

Background: Alaska is known for its many fisheries, which support an extensive global marketplace, a thriving tourism industry, and also contribute much to diets of many Alaskans. Yet, some research has suggested that Alaska's food security has been impacted negatively by the development of export-oriented commercial fisheries and tourism-oriented sport fisheries. In this paper, we discuss two sets of interviews that we completed with participants in two food fisheries in the Kenai Peninsula region of Southcentral Alaska: sockeye dipnet fishing and razor clam digging. Results: We encountered a great deal of cultural and socioeconomic diversity among the participants of each, though a far greater proportion of the clam fishery were Alaska Native than in the salmon fishery. In both fisheries, people report participating both as a matter of food security and family tradition. Likewise, participants in both fisheries reported a great deal of experience with and knowledge of the fisheries. Many clam diggers worried that the fishery was being overharvested, despite the apparent abundance of clams that year, and this proved prescient to the fishery's closure 2 years later. In the salmon fishery, some people were similarly concerned about the sustainability of the fisheries. Conclusions: Ultimately, our paper provides a descriptive account of participants in these two fisheries and sheds light on how important wild food harvests can be to the food security of Alaska's urban residents. We recommend that future resource management policies continue to support the role of fisheries in local food security.