Fishman

For Mike Kasic, the Yellowstone River represents the West as it’s meant to be—wild, fast and free flowing. Mike should know: He spends a lot of time swimming the Yellowstone, looking for fish and almost becoming one himself. In particular, he looks for the native Yellowstone cutthroat trout that represents, for him, the soul of the river. Unfortunately, all is not well for the cutthroat, and Mike finds fewer and fewer in his subaquatic searches. He sees the loss as emblematic of disappearing wilderness. “Take it away,” he says, “and we lose the ability to understand our world.” Playful yet elegiac, Fishman neatly captures the vital and tenuous connection between man and nature.
—PK