New Project Assessing the State of Alaska's Salmon and People

NCEAS has been chosen to lead a new project, the State of Alaska’s Salmon and People (SASAP) in partnership with Nautilus Impact Investing in Anchorage, Alaska. SASAP is catalyzing and funding a group of experts with the aim to provide an up-to-date interdisciplinary perspective on Alaska’s salmon systems and the people who rely upon them.

Three working groups have already commenced, focusing on a broad scale, cross-cutting analysis of 1) salmon distribution and habitat, 2) sociocultural and economic dimensions of salmon systems, and 3) current governance and management of salmon. NCEAS will issue an open Call for Proposals in July 2016 for additional working groups -- check alaskasalmonandpeople.org or nceas.ucsb.edu soon for more details.

The persistence of wild salmon in Alaska reflects a long tradition of stewardship. However, salmon systems and the people who depend on them are increasingly threatened by climate change, ocean acidification, and other global and local development pressures. Salmon stewards and stakeholders need access to information about salmon and the factors that will shape the future of salmon, yet it can be difficult to readily access up-to-date, accurate, or integrated information.

SASAP’s mission is to create an equitable decision-making platform for stakeholders by addressing the information gaps in Alaska’s salmon system through information synthesis, collaboration, and stakeholder engagement. SASAP experts seek to answer three core questions: what do we know, what do we not know, and how can we better integrate and share what we know about Alaska’s salmon system for better decision making.

The State of Alaska’s Salmon and People is generously funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

For more information, visit SASAP.