Beyond fish: Social outcomes of Maritimes region atlantic salmon hatcheries and stocking programs through a social-ecological systems lens

Abstract

Atlantic salmon and people have been inextricably linked in North American since time immemorial. Interactions between salmon and humans are social-ecological systems comprised of complex interactions between social and biophysical agents interacting at heterogeneous spatial and temporal scales, and through technologies such as hatchery and stocking programs. As salmon populations have declined in the Maritime provinces, hatcheries have been viewed as both solution and challenge toward restoring Atlantic salmon populations. While the multifaceted ecological and genetic impacts of salmon stocking are well established in the scientific literature, hatcheries are still operational and valued by communities in the Maritime provinces today. A growing body of social science literature has explored the psychological, social, and conservation reasons for continued use of these facilities for salmon conservation, and the present study contributes to that discussion through a relational lens. We find that hatcheries and stocking programs are contributing to human-salmon relationships in socially desirable ways, including as a tangible conservation action for stakeholders dealing with ecological grief and anxiety, economic loss, and stewardship loss due to declining regional salmon populations. We demonstrate how hatcheries could be understood to contribute to social resilience during ecological loss, though they may simultaneously detract from ecological (particularly genetic) resilience. We conclude with a discussion of whether and how these social outcomes can be considered by decision makers in a time of evolving salmon conservation policy in the region. • Atlantic salmon hatcheries in the Maritimes Region produce social and ecological outputs. • In these areas, hatchery and stocking programs appear to be facilitating multi-faceted human-salmon relationships. • Some stakeholder engagement in salmon stocking is linked to coping with ecological grief or anxiety. • The programs appear to support aspects of social resilience, with potentially negative impacts on ecological resilience. • Management for future conservation salmon stocking should consider social and ecological outputs of hatchery programs.

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