It’s the time of year again when children have returned to school and seemingly endless daylight gives way to shorter days and cooler nights. In the Bristol Bay region of Alaska, it is viewed less as the end of another summer, and more as the end of another salmon season.
Many weeks of hard work harvesting and preserving tens of millions of salmon to feed our families, communities and the rest of the world has come to an end. I can’t think of a better time to pause and celebrate Bristol Bay’s wild salmon. We celebrate the incredible journey every single salmon makes; traveling thousands of miles in its life to return to its birthplace and complete the cycle of life. It is this cycle of salmon that has provided for our people, uninterrupted, for thousands of years. We celebrate the salmon because, in many respects, we owe our lives — and livelihoods — to them.
