An art–science approach to bycatch in the Gulf of California shrimp trawling fishery

Abstract

This piece blends prose, poetry, and drawings in a geopoetic approach to bycatch in the Gulf of California shrimp trawling fishery. We briefly communicate some of the ecological effects of the trawling industry and reflect on our collaboration as an art-science practice that draws on our multiple disciplinary backgrounds, one as a geographer-poet and the other as a marine ecologistvisual artist. We present two poems and drawings addressed to specific individuals of bycatch -a Pacific snake-eel and a Shame-faced crab. We focus on specific individual marine bodies as an act of witness to the more-than-human bodies so often the casualties of this fishing practice. The poetic trope of direct address to an individual eel and crab allows us to work from specific embodied encounters as a site of cultural geographic and geopoetic practice. We aim to convey what it feels like to be on a trawler and to allude to geographic concerns implicitly in the poetry and text. We present this to readers as a piece of creative writing and invite them to bring their own interpretations to the text.

Animal geographies I: Hearing the cry and extending beyond

“…Following the patterns of diversity described in previous reports, work of recent years shows empirical, methodological and conceptual diversity. Published work examines empirical contexts as diverse as urban stray/feral cats (Van Patter and Hovorka, 2018; Chan, 2016), robotic milk production (Holloway and Bear, 2017; Bear et al, 2017), disease control (Enticott, 2017; Naylor et al, 2017), fisheries bycatch (Magrane and Johnson, 2017), the place of animals in war and the military (Forsyth, 2017; Howell and Kean, 2018), children’s everyday encounters with animals (Taylor and Pacini-Ketchabaw, 2017), and spaces of captivity and exploitation (Morin, 2016). It extends methodology, towards visual methods (Bear et al, 2017), ethology (Barua and Sinha, 2017), experiments with digital infrastructure (Kirksey et al, 2018); and notably to collaborative interdisciplinary methods, including arts-science (e.g.…”

“…It extends methodology, towards visual methods (Bear et al, 2017), ethology (Barua and Sinha, 2017), experiments with digital infrastructure (Kirksey et al, 2018); and notably to collaborative interdisciplinary methods, including arts-science (e.g. Magrane and Johnson, 2017), work with veterinary and laboratory practitioners (e.g. Davies et al, 2018; Greenhough and Roe, 2018, 2019), and with biological scientists (e.g.…”

“…Demonstrating the maturity of the sub-discipline, research in the field of animal geographies is concerned not only with questions relating to animals and human-animal relations, but also directly engages debates, develops theoretical approaches, and contributes insight to concepts adopted elsewhere in the discipline, including affect and emotion (Collard, 2016; Taylor and Pacini-Ketchabaw, 2017; Wilcox, 2017), bodies (Morin, 2016; Nelson, 2017), mobilities (Flack, 2016; Hodgetts and Lorimer, 2018), agency (Gorman, 2017; Van Patter and Hovorka, 2018), biopolitics (Bluwstein, 2018; Colombino and Giaccaria, 2016), interdisciplinarity (Magrane and Johnson, 2017; Pooley et al, 2017), the Anthropocene (Houston et al, 2018; McGregor and Houston, 2018), and encounter (Collard, 2016; Wilson, 2017). In addition to its animal geographies progress reports, this journal has recently published papers that explicitly seek to develop theoretical approaches for animal geographies (Hodgetts and Lorimer, 2018; Lorimer et al, 2019).…”

“…Some recent work extends beyond this traditional remit towards non-terrestrial, non-mammalian species (notable earlier examples include Bear, 2011; Beisel et al, 2013; Phillips, 2013). Recent research on aquatic animals examines the lives of captive marine mammals (Taylor and Carter, 2018); experiences of killing fish deemed ‘invasive’ species (Atchison et al, 2017); ecological effects and affects of fisheries bycatch (Magrane and Johnson, 2017); and the legality (Braverman, 2018) and economies (Bear, 2017) of marine life.…”

Poetry as a Creative Practice to Enhance Engagement and Learning in Conservation Science

“…We also recognize the growing area of environmental humanities research, which is strongly driven by those working in the arts and humanities. People working in environmental humanities are building interdisciplinary collaboration and research and reflecting on and critiquing actions and inactions when it comes to the use and management of our natural world (e.g., Magrane and Johnson 2016 ). Our article is directed at conservation scientists who have included or who are interested in creating poetry in their practice and are not poetry or literary specialists.…”