Revealing Hydrocitizenship: Relational and multi-sensorial responses to the European Eel (Anguilla anguilla) and the Black-legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla)

The 'Hydrocitizenship' project is a 3-year Arts and Humanities Research Council project that uses creative co-production methods to rethink our relationships with each other and with water. In four UK case study areas, 15 Researchers from 9 universities are collaborating with arts practitioners, community groups and policy-makers. The methodology is a transformative learning approach using reflection and a range of social science participatory and arts-based methods. This paper focuses on an initiative where an examination of two species, the Black-legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) and the European Eel (Anguilla anguilla), was used as a focus to extend, critique and reflect on emotional, psychological and associative responses to water in the landscape. The concept of ‘communitas’ was used (Turner 1991) to explore human/non-human species relationships and aspects of water that are often poorly considered.

The Kittiwakes of the River Tyne and the Eels of the River Severn both travel long distances by, with, from and in water through landscape and mariscapes. The Eels of the Severn remain mysterious and elusive; travelling over 4,000 miles from the Sargasso Sea to the river. A rich culinary and history is known locally. Eels are portrayed primarily as a commodity by many locals, and as sinister creatures with associated myths and legends in much of the traditional, historic and ‘naturalist’ literature (Boulenger 1941-2; Tsukamoto & Kuroki 2013). The larvae which float and swim from the Sargasso Sea are strangely prehistoric; their hatching is still shrouded in mystery (Prosek 2010). Eels change not only their skin, but their pigment, size and shape in response to the freshwater.

Studies on Black-legged Kittiwakes indicate that there has been a marked population decline over much of northern European colonies (Bogdanova et al. 2011). The Kittiwakes that nest on the Tyne Bridge, Newcastle are the furthest inland colony in the world; 160 pairs were recorded in 2002. They travel long distances to feed in the North Sea and out of nesting season they range across the Atlantic Ocean (Cocker & Mabey 2005; since the 1950s (Coulson 2011). There are varying reactions to their presence and are described as ‘part of the cultural mix [of the city], a wildlife wonder with which no other city can compete’ (Cocker & Mabey 2005:242). Their calls are an integral part of the city character.

Both species connect fresh and salt water (Davis et al 2004; Hoestlandt 1991). The sensory and associative, conscious and unconscious exploration of these species and their relationship with water provides opportunities for artistic interpretation and public engagement that will be presented. The paper reflects on the role of arts-based methods in engaging communities in landscape ecological thinking, particularly in water as more than ‘H₂0’ (Illich, 1985) and in revealing the cultural significance, meanings and mythologies of species.