The relationships between salmon and people have been broken throughout much of the world but remain intact in Alaska, largely due to a long tradition of stewardship. However, the sustainability of the healthy relationship between salmon and people is threatened by issues such as changes in salmon abundance, declines in the size of salmon, inequitable access to salmon fisheries, graying of the fleet, and other social shifts.

The State of Alaska’s Salmon and People (SASAP) project aims to make available and accessible the information needed to continue and strengthen Alaska’s legacy of science-based management of Alaska’s salmon.

The SASAP project integrates knowledge across disciplines and agencies, between cultures and users, and across regions. By doing so, SASAP seeks to provide a more holistic view of the complex and dynamic system that will serve to influence research priorities, develop and monitor indicators of system health, and facilitate equitable management of the system.

The SASAP process is supported by a novel data science and synthesis partnership between the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at the University of California, Santa Barbara and more than 100 Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledge experts, scientists, and educators throughout Alaska, the United States, and Canada.

What has emerged is a deep look into the state of knowledge of the biological, cultural, economic, and governance dimensions of Alaska’s salmon and the people who depend upon them. This unique approach produces a multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural, and thus more complete understanding of Alaska’s salmon and people systems than has yet been done to date.

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