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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how a virus that emanates from Atlantic salmon farms in coastal British Columbia can reveal global geographies of aquaculture within the bodies and blood cells of fish, and further asks how viral ecologies contribute to newly emerging toxic geographies of settler-colonialism.

Paper long abstract:

In the coastal waters of British Columbia (BC), the origin, spread, and threat of Piscine orthoreovirus (PRV), a virus that spreads rapidly among fish in open-net farms of Atlantic salmon, has become embroiled within the protection of Indigenous rights and territories and has stoked anxieties around the ambiguous geographical circulation of viral discharge. The virus travels through ocean currents, tides, and the movements of fish, people, and water, and since Atlantic salmon farms in BC are located on Pacific salmon migration routes, concerns over inter-species transfer of the virus are particularly pronounced. The "blue revolution" of farm-raised seafood is complicated when salmon become at risk of ruptured blood cells and organ damage, and such signs of PRV are found far from farm locations. In this paper, I ask how attention to PRV makes global geographies of aquaculture visible in the bodies and blood cells of fish. I describe how, amidst tense state and scientific calibrations that struggle to determine the pathogenicity of PRV, the feral effects of industrialized aquaculture, such as the proliferation of novel viruses, can accentuate settler-colonial dispossession in ways that continue to unfold beyond the boundaries of farms. Moreover, I look to the lives and bodies of salmon to consider how the expanding PRV footprint might transform salmon migration routes and contribute to newly emerging toxic geographies of settler-colonialism. I hope to provide space for the bodies of salmon to tell stories of livability, encounter, and colonial entanglement in a watery borderland between settler-states.