Posted on December 3, 2019 by Krista McIntyre
“If we lose all wild species we’re gonna lose ourselves,” Patagonia CEO, Yvon Chouinard, says at the close of the movie Artifishal: The Fight to Save Wild Salmon, produced by Patagonia Films. The film grabbed my attention for three reasons. First, Patagonia makes movies? Second, I live in Idaho and I eat a lot of salmon. And third, the film made me very mad.
Artifishal explores the extinction threat to wild salmon posed by fish hatcheries and fish farms. The unintended consequences to ecosystems of mixing fish hatchery populations with wild species populations extend far beyond the fish. Killer whales are threatened by declining wild salmon population and human communities are impacted by scarcity. It’s all connected and it’s all a big mess.
“The road to extinction is paved with good intentions,” reads the trailer for Artifishal. The good intentions to farm and restock hatchery fish among wild populations represent a twentieth century solution for a twenty-first century reality. This is the part that makes me mad. Although the data reveals that hatchery fish are devastating to wild populations and the data reveals that if left alone wild populations recover on their own, humans can’t get out of the way.
On the contrary, Artifishal reveals that we trust the controlled, engineered solutions conceived in modern times by humans more than we trust the repeated, demonstrated success of millions of years of natural evolution. Artifishal makes the case persuasively for scrapping taxpayer supported hatchery projects in favor of reestablishing natural conditions conducive to wild evolution. Chouinard effectively punctuates this theme of the film: “There’s no right way to do the wrong thing.”
Artifishal exposes deeper conflicts facing humans since the very beginning. Nature diversifies, humans simplify. Nature nourishes, humans consume. Nature evolves, humans engineer. Wild salmon populations cannot keep up with human population demands. And so far our solution to the problem we created are only creating new threats. So, what can we do to help?
Buy more Patagonia gear. Support the projects and organizations Patagonia supports. Years ago, the privately held company committed to support grassroots environmental organizations and the planet as the company grows. The company distributes one percent of annual sales to local organizations, it’s called the “earth tax.” Chouinard’s environmental values are woven into the company’s DNA. Artifishal is not a movie made to sell product, it was made to expand our thinking. Check it out on YouTube, iTunes, and Amazon Prime.
Tags: Salmon, Patagonia, Wilderness