Kings of the Yukon

Starred review from June 4, 2018
British journalist Weymouth ventures 2,000 miles on the Yukon River in an earnest quest to discover whether the Chinook salmon (or king salmon), which is in rapid decline worldwide, can survive in “the last chance on earth to get it right.” Weymouth interweaves his observations on wildlife with an analysis of sociopolitical and environmental factors that affect not just the salmon but also the people whose cultures and economies are built around it. He is adept at technical descriptions of how hatcheries and fishwheels work (“around a central axle, traditionally greased with bear fat, are two baskets formed from a lattice of spruce poles”) and how integral salmon is to the ecosystem (grizzly bears “can get through 40 salmon in eight hours” in order to gain 50% of their body weight before winter). He is knowledgeable about attempts to control salmon that date back centuries and the battle between subsistence fishers and wildlife managers. His most effective vignettes record interactions with those he met on his journey, including Alaskan reality TV stars who battled a raging flood and an 84-year-old woman at her fish camp. This is a richly told history of one of North America’s most remote wildernesses.