Salmon Migrate from Stream to Sea and Back Again: Knowledge Flows Within, Into and Out of a Hatchery Community

This study is situated within a national research program aimed at elucidating the multiple challenges faced by small coastal communities who are sensitive to the social and environmental events that shape and shift their livelihood. Decisions that affect these communities are often embedded within scientific discourse and neglect the diverse and rich locally situated knowledge that exists within the communities themselves. This study centers on a salmon hatchery, which not only produces fish, but a wealth of knowledge about salmon biology and ecology. This community exists within the federal salmonid enhancement program made up of research scientists who conduct experiments on salmon and whose findings shape aspects of hatchery practices. Drawing from interviews with hatchery staff, support biologists, and fish biologists as well as an ongoing two-year ethnographic study, we document the flow of knowledge within, into and out of this hatchery. We articulate knowledge flows between the human and nonhuman actors, places, communities, networks and regions that make up a fluid social topology of the salmonid enhancement program. Understanding how knowledge flows, sometimes freely and sometimes not, gives us insight into ways in which scientists can work with communities and foster a mutual learning environment. We offer a potential design for scientist/non-scientist relations, based on an already existing position within the salmonid enhancement program, the support biologist.