Long Live the King - Official Trailer

Long Live the King is a story of hope and resurgence for Alaska's great King Salmon fishery. Returning numbers of the fish have been dropping steadily, and both 2012 and 2013 hit especially hard - with multiple rivers and regions across the state seeing some of the lowest returns ever, forcing Alaska Fish and Game officials to close or severely limit salmon fishing around the state, including on some of Alaska's most iconic rivers. In addition, what is starting to seem like an all out war on salmon – mining, dams, hatcheries and the state government are all marching forward in opposition of Alaska treasure salmon resource. For many, this is an attack on religion, not just a fish.

Comments

[David]

Cool trailer, I'm not educated enough to fully understand the declines in Kings to know whether its a cyclic thing or that human intervention is reducing the populations. Fundamentally people have to be influencing the numbers. I can't wait to see the full length version. Thanks

[mc]

The seriousness of the situation is real, however the characterization of the state of Alaska as waging a war on salmon is a bit dramatic. No one is working harder than state and federal biologists, managers, and researchers in Alaska to try to understand what is driving king salmon declines.

A single dam or a single mine is not responsible- if they were, the response would be easy. There is likely a suite of interacting processes (likely climate and fishery driven) that have led to this downturn.

Alaska is fortunate to have management programs in place that can respond to these declines at a watershed or population scale allowing "officials to close or severely limit salmon fishing" as a conservation measure.

Such conservative management has not been the precedent- just look at the history of salmon on the West Coast, East Coast and Europe.