We’re writing to you from the Block Corporate Salmon campaign, which is a Black, Indigenous, and people of color led campaign dedicated to stopping the release of genetically engineered salmon (GE salmon) into US and world markets, while amplifying Indigenous solutions for Salmon protection and restoration. 

Recently, some members of our team — Carl, Celia, Estefanía, Feini, and Sai — had the chance to visit Oregon and Washington, to get to more deeply know the Columbia River and the Salmon, Steelhead, and Salmon People who call the River home. We were invited there by our collaborator, teacher and friend, Buck Jones, to attend the Columbia River Indian Fishers Expo organized by the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.

As many receiving this newsletter know deeply, Wild Salmon are struggling across Turtle Island, threatened by habitat loss, dams, salmon farms, bycatch from factory trawlers, an industrial food system that has severed the relationships communities have to nature and place, and the disenfranchisement of Indigenous communities that have existed in caretaking reciprocity with Salmon since time immemorial. Yet Salmon cultures remain vibrant and resilient. And, through epic life cycles that feed and allow entire ecosystems to flourish, Salmon continue to teach us all about life.

Since 2019, the Block Corporate Salmon campaign has played our role in tackling the Salmon crisis largely by blocking (as our name suggests) the efforts of AquaBounty, a biotech company that produces GE salmon branded as AquAdvantage salmon. We’ve been part of a campaign that has collected commitments from more than 80 grocery retailers, seafood companies, and restaurants to not sell GE salmon. In 2022, we partnered with a former AquaBounty employee and activists in Williams County, Ohio to release an investigative report, AquaBounty Exposed, with more than 60 pages of evidence detailing AquaBounty’s violations of environmental safety, animal welfare, and human health. Today, the company has closed its only facility in the US, and though they are trying to open another, they are gasping for air as their stocks flounder at record lows.

As we witness AquaBounty’s downfall, we’ve been reflecting on where to put our energies as a campaign, and allowing ourselves to think even bigger. Through our time organizing together, we’ve been continually deepening relationships with Salmon Peoples, as well as with Indigenous and Black leaders in NAMA’s networks. We’ve been blessed to be part of beautiful convenings and we’ve hosted art builds, workshops, and creative actions that center dreaming. Our experiences together have heightened our collective conviction to widen the lens on the “B” part of BCS to embody not just the “blocking” but the “building” that has always been part of our campaign.

When it comes to building, we know relationships are the foundation. We are embarking on a visionary fiction project, centering the relationships we hold near and dear, to conjure liberatory futures together. Over the next years, we’ll be collecting oral histories and visions for the future from Salmon Protectors and BIPOC activist accomplices working toward Salmon restoration and food sovereignty across Turtle Island. Inspired by the form of visionary fiction put forth by writer-activists adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha, who themselves are building on the traditions of Black ancestors like Octavia E. Butler, this project fosters the devotional acts of building relationships, collaborative dreaming, and art-making that leads to collective healing and liberation. 

On our visit to the Columbia River Basin, we cherished opportunities to spend time with people’s stories, including those of Brigette at Salmon King Fisheries in Warm Springs, OR and Christina at Native Candy in Bingen, WA. Brigette shared histories of her family and her people, lessons from her grandmother that she carries with her, and the story of how she came to start her shop selling fish and beads, the biggest trade items in her people’s history. Christina spoke about reconnecting with our abilities to listen to the more-than-human kin around us: “There was a time when these natures, they spoke to us and we could understand. And what I’ve come to understand is that they can speak to us. They are alive. All these natures, all this, this River right here,” she said. 

Of course, we will keep blocking as well, as you’ll see from our action we recently organized with NFFC below. 

Yours in blocking and building,
The BCS Team

In This Issue
NAMA and NFFC in Berea, KY
Introducing Hamida Kinge
Fish Myth
News Roundup
Slow Fish in Charleston, SC
Find Your Seafood Week
Matagorda Bay Fishing Cooperative