Aquaculture Cradle / Creathal Dualchas Uisgeach © Isabel McLeish 2021

Created for ATLAS Arts’ publication A Person Is Not An Individual. Limited edition screenprints of Aquaculture Cradle (2022) are available to purchase through ATLAS Arts’ online shop. Aquaculture Cradle is inspired by Nasser Mufti’s Multispecies Cat’s Cradle (2011) in Staying with The Trouble (2016) book by Donna Haraway.

Lochalsh is a marine protected area which hosts a variety of rich wildlife including the largest seabed in Scotland of brightly coloured bivalve molluscs known as flame shells. I have witnessed the loch change as more salmon farms are introduced but also as dredgers are encouraged to move away from this protected area. A huge volume of marine waste continues to wash up on the shore in Reraig, and I worry about the industrial fishing processes impact on local biodiversity. While I was growing up, my family had a shellfish business of hand diving for scallops which is a more environmentally respectful method of fishing for shellfish as opposed to dredging. Dredging involves dragging large nets across the seabed and gathers all the natural materials and sea life rather than being selective. I wonder about food security and what the future holds if destructive fishing and marine practices continue.

The rise of sea levels will threaten homes and communities living close to the shore. Climate change will create warmer, wetter and wilder weather for local people.

I hope to encourage consideration of the environmental impact of the current intensive fishing industry, and to encourage action in developing regenerative and respectful methods of food production and connection to place and ecology.

References:

Haraway, D. (2016) Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. United States: Duke University Press.