Eel Project

This note is about a project with eels as the key stakeholder.

Cf.

previous project iterations
- Brackish
- Deltas
topical notes:
- Animals
- Fish
- Eel
- Food
related concepts:
- biopolitics
- Anthropocene
- biosphere, noosphere, technosphere
- Earth system governance, planetary governance
- critical ecology, ecocriticism
- environmental studies
- Critical Life Studies, book series by Columbia University Press
- biocivilisations
- Politics, Political Ontology
- riverhood
- hydrosocial geographies
- witnessing
- reenactment 1 and reenactment studies 2

Approaches to History

geospatial analysis including historical GIS
Historical Ecology
Environmental History
forensic architecture
forensic ecologies 3^,4^,5 The typical way to understand "forensic ecology" is as a way to produce evidence to support legal cases about human crimes.
sentinels of the environment 6
historical reconstructions of environments and events using archaeological and historical data
data journalism
reconstruction design, reconstructing historical buildings, artefacts, technology such as boats physically and putting them into action to verify the extend and characteristics of their functionality. Digital reconstruction for visualisation, analysis, and interactive engagement
HBIM, historical building information modelling
reconstruction of paleo-environments, paleo-climates, paleo-ecologies, paleopedology for example reconstruction of geomorphology or hominin landscapes
reconstruction of tectonic movements, sea levels, and other geological events
alternative histories, for example in artificial life experiments, Dawkins's experiments, simulations of alternative scenarios of extinction events, etc.

Approaches to history and uses or history are different in different fields such as ecology, heritage, design, humanities, social sciences, Indigenous studies, food studies, and more.

Objectives:

merge anthropocentric and other histories
extend the histories into deep past
reconsider histories as parts of present and future
expand histories to include disempowered and non-human agents
use histories as a source of inspiration and workable examples for the design of the future

Methods

anticipatory ethnography, anthropology of the future

Pink, Sarah. “Futures Anthropology for the Polycrisis.” Anthropological Forum, 2025, 1–18. https://doi.org/10/hbcw3d.

Voorst, Roanne van. “Futures Thinking as Collaborative Practice in Anthropology.” Anthropology Today 41, no. 2 (2025): 15–19. https://doi.org/10/hbcv5c.

[width: 700px]

RCA: River Co-Learning Arenas

Souza, Daniele Tubino de, Lena Hommes, Arjen Wals, Jaime Hoogesteger, Rutgerd Boelens, Bibiana Duarte-Abadía, Juan Pablo Hidalgo-Bastidas, et al. “River Co-Learning Arenas: Principles and Practices for Transdisciplinary Knowledge Co-Creation and Multi-Scalar (Inter)Action.” Local Environment 30, no. 1 (2025): 58–80. https://doi.org/10/hbczbb.

People

Malcolm S. Johnson, arts-science communicator on the biocultural histories of freshwater eels, Tasmania, Australia
Andrew Kerr, Chairman at Sustainable Eel Group, UK
Osborne Ben, President at Victorian Eel Fishermans Association

Australian Indigenous Connections

Iuk Eel Season, see Eastern Kulin Seasonal Calendar

"Journey of the eel February and March were the months of the wygabil-ny-ewin (eel season) when female eels begin their long journey down the Birrarung (Yarra) River to Nairm (Port Phillip Bay). The return of the eels in Pareip (Spring) was celebrated through dances and celebrations."

...

"Harvesting Food at Tromgin. Eels were a staple food hunted by the Kulin. The Eel Bridge over the ornamental lake at the Royal Botanic Gardens celebrates its bountiful eel population. Chief Protector George Robinson had an office in the former mission station beside Tromgin. In January 1841 he recorded and sketched Boon Wurrung men catching eels. ‘This afternoon two native blacks of the Boongerong tribe – Niggerernaul and a lad named Dol.ler – came to my office and went to the lagoon about a quarter of a mile distant in the paddock and in a very short time caught about forty pounds of eel. I saw them catching or rather spearing them at which they are very expert. Their mode is as follows: they each had two spears called by them 1. toke.in, 2. yoke.wil.loke. The eels they call yoe.hoke. Bet Banger is father to Dol.ler. Having the two spears grasped by the right hand thus, they go in to the water and keep walking about, at the same time jabbing their spears into the mud in a sloping direction before them. If they jab in their spear which is ascertained by their feet they turn it up on the end of the spear, the second spear is jabbed into it whilst he lifts holds it down and thus kills it. If not quite dead they bite the head and throw it on shore. I bought some of the eels, twenty, and two spears made thus: half an inch stick. Wire size of that used round the rim of saucepan, it is called yoke.wil.’"

Eidelson, Meyer. Melbourne Dreaming: A Guide to Important Places of the Past and Present. 1997. Expanded. Melbourne: Aboriginal Studies Press, 2014.

Cf. eel trap bridge in Melbourne

References

Peterson, Jesse D. 2024. “Ethical Challenges in Mariculture: Adopting a Feminist Blue Humanities Approach.” Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 37 (1): 3. https://doi.org/10/g9xg2j.