How "wild" are hatchery salmon? Conservation policy and the contested framing of nature in Canada and the United States

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4464577
AutoresValerie Berseth (0000-0001-8479-0190, University of British Columbia, autor correspondente), Ralph Matthews (University of British Columbia)
Ano2021
Volume4
Fascículo3
Páginas1077-1098
Data de publicação2021-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoEnvironment and Planning E Nature and Space (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2514-8486 • E-ISSN: 2514-8494
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/2514848620945315
OpenAlexW3047356293
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas9
Referências citadas86

The idea of the Anthropocene presents a paradox for conservation: to restore and protect wild species and ecosystems, greater human intervention is required through efforts such as artificial propagation. This paradox is evident in efforts to conserve Pacific salmon. Salmon hatcheries produce millions of salmon to augment wild populations and sustain fishing industries, but emerging knowledge about salmon genomics has called into question the "wildness" of hatchery salmon. This article examines how the scientific uncertainties regarding wild species are contested by a range of stakeholders and how particular frames become concretized in policy frameworks. Despite the significance of laws and policies to the governance of such hybrid species, they have received limited attention. Drawing on archival documents, legislation, policies, government reports, and media sources, we conduct a cross-national comparative analysis of how wildness is framed in policy debates in Canada and the United States. We find that hatchery-born salmon occupy a position at the threshold of scientific and cultural definitions of wildness and this ambiguity facilitates political contests among groups with divergent interests in conservation and views of the human-nature relationship. As a result, hatchery salmon have been regulated differently across time and geographic and jurisdictional space. These findings contribute to an expanding literature on conservation in the Anthropocene and managing wild species

Anthropocene · Biology · Business · Corporate governance · Domestication · Economics · Environmental ethics · Environmental resource management · Fish · Fishery · Geography · Hatchery · Legislation · Political science · Politics · Stakeholder · Wildness · American Environmental and Regional History · Fish Ecology and Management Studies · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Law · Ecology