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Paper short abstract

Rooted in ethnographic fieldwork and a multispecies ethnography approach of human-fish relationships in Canada, this paper explores the practical and conceptual challenges and potentials of working on, in and with water and asks how such an engagement can go beyond superficial dimensions.

Paper long abstract

Learning with and through water is an everyday practice for more-than-human life in watery environments. This paper asks how anthropologists can actively immerse themselves in these more-than-human worlds and how such a methodological approach can reshape understandings of these life-worlds and beyond. Based on an ethnographic research project on human-fish relationships on the Canadian West Coast, this paper explores the process of learning to understand and work with water in collaboration with human and non-human actors. Here, sailing, diving and wading are explored as ways to immerse in watery life-worlds. In coastal British Columbia knowing the waters, their currents, tide timings and wave heights is essential for more-than-human survival. At the same time, the fluidity of water defies borders – of nation states and Indigenous territories – which problematizes national approaches to marine management. This fluidity also challenges the idea of beings as separate entities and instead underlines their interconnectedness. Environmental DNA testing reveals how beings become a part of the waters. When DNA is used as a synonym for identity, eDNA testing can provoke local discussions of what belongs and what does not (for example when farmed Atlantic salmon becomes part of the eDNA of Pacific waters). Starting from the practical implications of doing ethnography on, in and with water, this paper will explore the conceptual shift these practices provoke as watery worlds emphasize the interconnectedness of life in a special way.