Sea change, know fish: catching the tales of fish and men in Cordova, Alaska

Sea change, know fish: catching the tales of fish and men in Cordova, Alaska

Springer, Emilie S.

Date: 2019-08

Subject: Pacific salmon fisheries ; Alaska ; Cordova ; personal narratives ; history ; personal narratives ; sockeye salmon fisheries ; sockeye salmon fishing ; fishing

Type: Thesisphd

Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Introduction -- 1.1 Conceptual intentions -- 1.2 Case study location: Cordova, Alaska -- 1.3 Project procedures and modifications -- 1.4 Organization of the dissertation -- 1.5 Creating a community web. Chapter 2: Theoretical framework and methodology -- 2.1 Accountability in ethnographic texts -- 2.2 Emic stance -- 2.3 Comparing authoring to writing -- 2.4 Public media and ethnographic composition -- 2.5 The role of context and time -- 2.6 Research methods -- 2.7 Creating community portraits: example models -- 2.8 Poetry: capturing sound in writing -- 2.9 Story by visual review: archival photos -- 2.10 Story beyond the interview: The self as creative interpreter -- 2.11 Performance to enliven stories -- 2.12 Speaker and audience -- 2.13 Community reading. Cordova, Public Court Room, December 2013 -- 2.14 Conclusion -- 2.15 Bibliography. Chapter 3: Backdrop: Approaches to the social dimensions of fishing communities -- 3.1 Category 1: Anthropology in fisheries management -- 3.2 Category 2: Fishing community case studies -- 3.3 Category 3: Fisheries culture in literature -- 3.4 Literature review of additional composition formats -- 3.5 Conclusion -- 3.6 Bibliography. Chapter 4: Prince William Sound salmon: Ecology, humans, fisheries -- 4.1 Geography -- 4.2 Physical characteristics of the Copper River Basin -- 4.3 Early history, Prince William Sound: Pre-1900 interaction of Native groups in Prince William Sound and the Gulf of Alaska -- 4.4 Prince William Sound villages -- 4.5 Other prospects: Cordova as "Copper Gateway" of Alaska -- 4.6 Early salmon packing -- 4.7 Salmon traps and management in the early 1900's -- 4.8 A notorious legacy of March: Good Fridays? -- 4.9 Contemporary Prince William Sound commercial salmon -- 4.10 Commercial fisheries limited entry -- 4.11 Non-local industry participation in the Copper River drift-fleet -- 4.12 Russian Old Believers in Alaska and their participation in commercial fishing -- 4.13 Contemporary canneries and fish processing -- 4.14 Contemporary salmon harvest gear -- 4.15 Salmon hatcheries -- 4.16 Management and regulation of openings -- 4.17 Occupational costs and revenue of commercial salmon fishing -- 4.18 Eastern Prince William Sound and the Copper River flats -- 4.19 Drift gear -- 4.20 Post-delivery: Cordova's central harbor -- 4.21 Seine gear -- 4.22 Publicizing fish: the Alaska seafood marketing institute -- 4.23 Copper River salmon: Distinct product recognition -- 4.24 Conclusion -- 4.25 Bibliography. Chapter 5: Creating a web of community portraits -- 5.1 Interview design -- 5.2 Portrait format -- 5.3 Cordova character portraits -- 5.4 Family dynamics of community industry -- 5.5 Fish days: Summer time in Cordova -- 5.6 The role of the Russian Old Believers in contemporary industry transitions -- 5.7 Bibliography. Chapter 6: Cordova fisher portraits. Chapter 7: Conclusion: Summary, contributions and future directions -- 7.1 Landscape and language -- 7.2 Fusion of story gathering to public performance -- 7.3 Continued opportunities for feedback -- 7.4 Final thoughts and intentions for future endeavors. Appendices.

Abstract:

Cordova, Alaska is a coastal community in Southcentral Alaska with an intricate history in commercial fishing, primarily for the Copper River sockeye salmon industry, which extends historically to pre-statehood. This dissertation collects personal narratives as a method to express cultural features of community identity and the role salmon has played in shaping identity, livelihood, and lifestyle in Cordova, Alaska. Research material is based on oral history interviews from which I construct written character portraits to depict aspects of resident life in this fishing community and from others who use the community to access summer salmon resources of the Copper River. Portraits were performed and presented in public venues to obtain casual feedback from and review by community members from Cordova and other participants in the Prince William Sound drift fishery. The portraits and public commentary post-performance or from community readers serve as one basis for analysis and lead to my conclusions about life in this community and, on a larger scale, cultural dimensions common within other communities (either geographic or occupational). Public performances offer a communication tool that provides a method to share differences within the industry without encountering explicit controversy over challenging industry transitions. Although the tool of storytelling does not typically receive significant media or policy attention, I find it very effective in understanding and mediating conflict across different groups of people, especially when the main theme of conflict, sustainability and access to the fishery resource, is a mutual cultural feature of interest to diverse participant groups. Additionally, public creative performances offer a venue of communication primarily designed for entertainment and as a result, the audience interaction with storytellers occurs more casually and perhaps more genuinely than it does in academic conferences or policy meeting venues. Personal stories related to the iconic feature of salmon with mutual significance in state and federal fisheries of the North Pacific are a valuable, intimate source of local and traditional knowledge. The opportunity to put meaningful and commonly shared emphasis on the fish as an economic and cultural resource and not on a particular stakeholder group may help lead to improved communications in a field that tends to illicit conflict in consideration of access to harvest rights.