Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011) – Lessons Learned
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by Richard Maltzman,
Dave Shirley
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Date
My wife and I just watched Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. I know, we are behind the curve. But with a busy life and an early start to our days, it causes a backlog of movies to see. Because I am a fly fisherman, the movie held a particular appeal to me, and as those of you who saw the movie know it wasn’t about the fish. It was about sustainability and a project. Most of us as project managers have experiences a project that seemed impossible. This project was particularly difficult, and as one of the main characters, Dr. Jones, puts it, “conditions in the Yemen make this project fundamentally unfeasible.” Of course the movie is somewhat predictable, but there were some moments that I could resonate with.
First, a little bit about fly fishing and its appeal for me. I am a process guy. Whether or not fly fishing helps me to understand project management better, or the discipline of project management makes me understand fly fishing better, it is a “chicken and egg” thing. But like projects, the end product is important, but the journey is just as important. For me, it’s not about the fish. It is about sustainability. Take trout fishing, for instance. Trout need clean, clear, cold water to survive. And, they need to survive. What I mean by that is that they are a limited resource. That is why there are both “catch and release” areas and “catch and kill” areas. Typically, catch and kill areas are places where the water will warm to a point where trout will not survive. They are areas that allow local fishermen to partake in the sport (get their value from their fishing licenses) early in the spring. Hatchery raised trout are stocked into streams to allow fishermen access to the sport.
My favorite pursuit is for wild or native trout, and here is where sustainability is most important. Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries (MDIF) defines wild trout fishery as “a body of waterthat has not been directly stocked with brook trout in the previous 25 years.” MDIF defines a native trout fishery trout as “abody of water that has no record of being directly stocked, or indirectly stocked as a result of a stocking event in a connecting water.” These fish, both wild and native, are self-sustaining. They breed in the wild. They need protection. Some waters are fly fishing, artificial (no bait), and/or catch and release fisheries. However, there are other aspects of sustainability that come into play. It is not just the trout that need to be protected, that is not enough. The areas where the fishery is located need to be protected and those protections garner increased benefits. Protecting water supplies by limiting development and regulating land use also helps an areas biodiversity. Regulating water usage so that streams are not dewatered and adequate water flow is maintained keeps fish spawning areas open and helps maintain water supplies for the human populations downstream, and the effects go on and on.
Keeping with the analogy of downstream, sustainability has “downstream effects.” Back to the movie; Sheikh Mohammad was trying to irrigate the desert by building a dam. To paraphrase the Sheikh, the downstream effects would “green” the desert and provide sustainable agricultural for present generations and future generations. The salmon are a symbol of that effort, doing the impossible, bringing cold water fishery (and agriculture) to an area that would seem impossible to do. Another and perhaps more subtle sustainability aspect, was the fact that no matter how much it was bred out of the salmon (farm raised) somewhere in the DNA they were imprinted to swim upstream to spawn. Again, it is a movie, and movies have a tendency to play fast and loose with facts, and that is an interesting premise that seems to be believable. The Salmon Fishing in the Yemen project was definitely a Green by Definition, using the definition in our book. It was attempting to “water” the desert, provide a viable coldwater fishery and provide a sustainable future for the human inhabitants.
But for me, the “aha” moment of the movie came at the very end, *SPOILER ALERT* after the attempt to destroy the fishery. My “aha” moment came when the project team discovered that some salmon survived the onslaught of the dam being opened. It was then that the impossible seemed even more possible. At that point Dr. Jones says “I’ll start again. I’ll do it on my own, if I have to. I’ll start small, a few fish to begin with, and involved the local community more so that it is their project, not ours. That’s the way it will be protected.” So, lessons learned, right?
Sustainability projects are unique, not that all projects are not by definition. So I should say, projects and sustainability is a unique undertaking. Stakeholder involvement (in this case the community) is critical for success. If not considered, the results may not be as overt and violent as those in the film, but the ramifications can be significant.
On a side note, a salmon fishery in Yemen may not be as far-fetched as it seems. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) power generating dams in the United States have provided a cold water fishery (through cold water releases from the bottom of their dams) in areas of the Deep South that would not normally support cold water fishes.
Posted
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Dave Shirley
on: May 29, 2013 07:53 PM |
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