Endangered Eating: Salish Sea Reefnet Fishing
Taught by Sarah Lohman
Sarah Lohman is a culinary historian and the author of the bestselling books Endangered Eating: America’s Vanishing Foods and Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine. She focuses on the history of food as a way to access the stories of diverse Americans. Endangered Eating was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and was named one of the Best Books of 2023 by Amazon’s Editors, Food & Wine, and Adam Gopnik on the Milk Street podcast. It was a finalist for the Nach Waxman Prize for Food & Drink Scholarship and winner of the Ohioana Library Book Prize for Nonfiction. Lohman’s work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and NPR. Lohman has lectured across the country, from the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, DC to The Culinary Historians of Southern California
This lecture series is a semi-secret preview of Sarah Lohman’s upcoming food history book, Endangered Eating: Exploring America’s Vanishing Food! Over the coming months, she’ll lead eight classes, each focused on a single chapter of her book. It’s your chance to get the scoop on Sarah’s work, help her with questions and feedback, and learn a curious story about America’s food past! Samples are included in this lecture.
In Salish Sea, north of Puget Sound, an ancient, indigenous fishing technique is being preserved. When “reefnet fishing,” a spotter looks for a school of fish then a net is raised in the water between two floating platforms, trapping the salmon in a “well.” The salmon are hauled on the platform by hand, and then kept in a live-well. This method keeps the fish calm, which ultimately results in a sweeter flavor and allows the fishermen to easily separate protected fish, unharmed. This technique is being preserved in Washington by the Lummi Island Wild Co-op, and I spent several days with them, catching, killing and sorting pink salmon until my hands swelled from the labor. I also jumped on board the first indegenious-run fishing gear on the water in over a century.
But the salmon this fisheries catch are disappearing, and as a result, so are the animals that eat them, like orca whales. Reefnet fishing is being proposed as a sustainable fishing method, in opposition to trolling. I’ll bring you along on the twists and turns as I follow the investigations into why the salmon are vanishing, and if reefnet is the answer.
We'll also have a sample of reefnet caught Puget Sound Pink salmon!
