Cristin Curwick, Northeast Minnesota Organizer, Minnesota Environmental Partnership
The white van pulled into the parking lot at Chambers Grove Park. Family Freedom Center staff released the van door as eight kids spill out, buzzing with excitement. They get to go fishing today, some of them their first or second time. “We get to take them home?” The kids echo as we hand them their very own pole. As the saying goes, “Give a man a fish…”.
To many, the St. Louis River is a space of connection to the environment, for various recreational activities, like kayaking, fishing, paddling. However, due to socioeconomic pressures, much of our community’s youth has not had the privilege to engage with the river they live so close to. MEP and the Family Freedom Center wanted to do something about this, to bridge this gap in connection to the river. “…feed him for a day”.
Community activist and seasoned fisherman Stephan Witherspoon pulls from his decades of experience fishing to teach the kids how to properly cast, and not hook your fellow anglers in the process. Stephan, FFC staff, and myself bounce from one youth to the next as we untangle the creative knots their fishing lines had found themselves in. However, as I’m untangling this young man’s line, the bobber goes under. He caught a beautiful perch. I ask him if this was his first fish he ever caught. He nods, looks up at me and asks, “Can we keep it?”
Unfortunately, the answer to this question is much more complicated than a simple yes or no. Not only is the ability to fish and interact with the river threatened by inaccessibility, it’s threatened by pollution. High levels of legacy mercury bioaccumulate in the fish, making it difficult and dangerous to keep and eat the fish. The Minnesota Department of Health Fish Consumption Guidelines recommend people who are, or may become, pregnant or are under age 15 should only eat one serving of crappie per month and one serving of perch per week from the St. Louis River
Although there are efforts to clean up this legacy mercury, there are proposed mines such as PolyMet that threaten the health of our river and its future. The river’s future stares back at me, the young man hoping desperately to keep the first fish he’s ever caught. “Teach a man to fish…”
I smile and tell the young man we have to let the perch go this time. Although he was disappointed, we unhook the lure from the little fish’s lips and slid it back into the river, bidding it farewell.
Our community deserves the opportunity to engage with our river. We need to work to remove the barriers that make it difficult for BIPOC and low-income populations in our community to participate in our river’s future.As a coalition, we need to protect our river from threats of pollution. In doing so, we protect the health of our community, protect our right to fish, and eat from the river. Together, we can feed the future of the river, for a lifetime.