Sea Trout 2

2024
Woodcut

In honour and memory of the sea trout shoals of old that once swam around the coast of Shetland that are now mostly gone.

Lost to greed and profit.

Fish are for the most part out of sight and therefore out of mind leaving them wide open to abuse and over exploitation, in ways that other creatures are not because we can see them.

The sea trout recently started to reappear in my mind as a fish that should be celebrated, treasured and bought back into consciousness.

People that have lived in close proximity to migratory such as the Coastal Salish peoples of NW America and the Pictish honoured the salmon as a sacred creature and as such made beautiful art to honour it. Like the geese that appear in autumn when these fish return to the rivers giving life and food not just people but to all around. Migratory fish are sacred creatures that deserve our respect and attention instead of being treated as commodity or plaything.