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Paper short abstract

Fishers must adapt to climate change in relation with other species, including invasive species. I examine how the round goby in Latvian Baltic waters has transformed from a threat to a source of salvation, necessitating commons thinking and relational adaptation.

Paper long abstract

Humans must navigate livable futures in relation to all other species with whom they co-inhabit the landscape and seascape. I bring insights from my current research in Latvia with small scale coastal fishers on the Baltic Sea coast, which illuminates crucial tensions that arise in the more-than-human dimensions of our understandings of food sovereignty. Fishers are entwined in webs of interspecies relationships that find them coming to terms with growing populations of invasive fish species like the round goby (Neogobius melanostomus). When the round goby first arrived in Latvian coastal waters around 2006, fishermen were shocked and determined to eradicate it. Later they not only grew accustomed to it but also began to rejoice at the largest catches seen in Southern Kurzeme in decades. The fishermen discovered new markets and economic opportunities and have become dependent on this species. In this talk, I examine how the round goby has transformed from a threat to a source of salvation in the eyes of fishermen. I argue that the interactions between fishermen, the round goby, and other marine species have transformed into a state of reciprocal capture (Stengers 2010), and given rise to a new distributed agency within the multispecies assemblage. This has not only created new threats but, paradoxically, also revitalized the fishing sector along the South Kurzeme coast. I explore how competitive adaptation has yielded to relational adaptation and contemplate possibilities and barriers for common understandings of adaption and interdependence in a polarized world and increasingly divided sea.