Our last cast: the future of salmonid angling in the American West

Abstract

Anglers are excellent at storytelling and have used this power to help guide the conservation of water in American West. But our stories need to be revised in the face of the Anthropocene. This thesis is a proposal for a book, including three sample chapters, that explains the stories anglers tell, assesses the effects of climate change on salmonid ecosystems, and calls for a new ethical framework in salmonid angling culture. Our Last Cast: The Future of Salmonid Angling in the American West will be a short book that narrates the complexity of current relations between salmonids and human anglers in the American West and discusses the future of this relationship using history, science, and animal ethics. It will consist of a preface, introduction, six main chapters, and an afterword. Each chapter will be pithy and insightful and will quickly bring people up to speed on the state of salmonid sport fisheries in this region. The book will be split into two main sections. Part one, Fishing in the Anthropocene, will focus on the environmental history of salmonid river systems and climate science. Section two, The Salmonid Ethic, will focus on philosophical, moral, and ethical aspects of anglers' relationships to salmonid ecosystems. By reframing the controversies over fisheries management, discussions about climate change, and anglers' ethical relations with salmonids, my book will be important for three reasons. First, there is no work that combines these three related narratives and condenses them into a series of accessible stories that challenge the dominant narratives surrounding fishing in the American West. Second, my life and work as a white male angler and fly-fishing guide places me in a position to engage with the dominant elitist culture of which I am a part. Third, and most important, Our Last Cast will give anglers an avenue and some language to grieve and heal together as a community.