ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)

@zoestodd

Anti-imperialist prairie fish science. Artist. Writer. Proud citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation. Fish are the future. The Institute for Freshwater Fish Futures (2018-present).

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ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Jul 6

The optics alone are terrible: water is gushing into a ditch in Nanoose Bay while we are on level 3 water restrictions and residents are doing everything possible to save water for the salmon in nearby streams. Parksville is at level 4 and Nanaimo is at level 3. Why waste this water in a drought?

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Jun 19

So we are at Stage 3 water restrictions in Area E of the Regional District of Nanaimo, with scary low snow pack on Van Isle. Can someone more knowledgeable than me can explain why Regional District of Nanaimo is allegedly pumping out an aquifer (for the next 3 months?) right now? @cheknews.ca

A local Nanoose Bay resident (name redacted) wrote: "Looks like the RDN has decided it is a good idea to pump the water from the aquifer at Claudet community park into the ditch during a stage three water restriction. They started yesterday morning June 18 and it will continue 24 hours a day for three months. They say they want to see how far the aquifer will drop so they can use it for storage. Other instances of this procedure has destroyed aquifers and they never rejuvenated. There are many acreages in the area that rely on this aquifer. Instead of dumping it straight into the ditch they are now laying pipes so it won’t be so noticeable to people using the park. Out of sight out of mind. It is illegal to waste water like this." Images include video footage of the aquifer being pumped out into the ditch, and piping. You can see the dead grass the pipes are running along.

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· May 26

oh, and:

A digital drawing shows an olive green and pale yellow walleye swims in front of a deep hot pink background with a word bubble emerging from its mouth that states "You can't eat data. #FishFutures"

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· May 10

everything is fine!

a screenshot of the 'Welcome! Everythis is fine.' sign from the hit television show The Good Place.

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Apr 6

you cannot braid, bridge, weave, ‘influence’, or reconcile Indigenous sovereignty to an AI industry that a) sees First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people as handpicked ‘advisors’ and ‘stakeholders’ rather than rights-holders or b) was always intent on getting its hands on native lands and waters here

Ottawa's decision to roll back federal climate rules for Alberta's AI industry comes after intense lobbying efforts by Capital Power, an Alberta electricity company building a gas-powered AI data centre. And Evan Solomon, Canada's AI minister, has only met with mining and energy companies about the environmental impacts of AI data centres — but so far has ignored environmental groups.

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Mar 30

That's a wrap on the third iteration of Intro to Critical Indigenous Fish Philosophy! (soon to be a dedicated course+not a special topics). This year we thought co-constitutively about physiology, physics, Indigenous philosophy, governance, kinship, biochemistry, evolution/diffraction, stories, hope

screenshot of last title slide from INDG 322: Intro to Critical Indigenous Fish Philosophy. Featuring images powerpoint pulled from the internet: from the top left -- a 'pause AI' rally, an image of the quantum mechanics of photosynthesis in the reaction centre of the chloroplast, and a landscape view of the Klamath River.

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Mar 23

It’s a shame that mainstream ‘Indigenous science’ streams erased (Pam Colorado, Robin Wall Kimmerer) or under-cited (Gregory Cajete) Deloria’s cogent and brilliant insights into things like quantum physics (in the 1970s no less) because it means that work lost the Critical Indigenous Studies lens

Page from Deloria’s chapter ‘Spacetime’ in Metaphysics of Modern Existence’: “ are mirrored—in other words, the Cartesian ditterence between res cogitans and res extensa—is no longer a suitable starting point for our understanding of modern science."2 So we begın our scientific inquiry at precisely the point where the non-Western peoples began.
We refuse to allow artificial divisions of subject-object, mind-mat-ter, and space-time to lead us astray. Heisenberg was thus correct in insisting that "the scientific worldview has ceased to be a scientific view in the true sense of the word."l3 Experimentation is participation; knowledge is an expansion of our ability to formulate and comprehend our relationships with the kosmos.
Perhaps the major remaining assumption that science retains while experiencing this transformation in its understanding is the belief that nature is orderly, that is, that it can be described in fairly precise mathematical terms. This idea originates in theological beliefs yet undergirds scientific inquiry. "Clearly it is not a formal presupposition or a logical premise," lan Barbour notes, "and it is never mentioned in scientific research itself; it is simply taken for granted in the scientific community and in the culture of which it is a part."14 This assumption continues to control the manner in which scientists interpret their data and postulate the expansion of theories. Thus Werner Heisenberg, identifying two common constant factors that all physicists use to interpret their data—the speed of light and the quantum of action-assumed the orderliness of nature as the basis for suggesting that yet a third constant could be discovered:
This is obvious for purely dimensional reasons. The universal constants determine the scale of nature, the characteristic quantities that cannot be reduced to other quantities. One needs at least three fundamental units for a complete set of units. 's We need not concern ourselves …”

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Mar 14

Tag yourself. I'm the carefree swirly biscuit.

softly lit photo of an opened tin of Danish butter cookies (yes, the ones the tins are turned into sewing boxes for).

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Mar 13

Not sure if it's quintessential, but this scene on Halloween last year remains my favourite BC Ferries moment yet.

Someone dressed in a cherry red blow up Koolaid Man costume tries to squeeze past the vending machines on the Horseshoe Bay-Departure Bay Ferry on Halloween

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Feb 2

irony is not lost on me that one leader of local 'taxpayers alliance' outraged about 'out of control taxes' is an ex-cop, whose entire profession benefits from out of control spending at expense of social services, environment, transit. The alliance consistently attacks social goods at meetings.

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Jan 25

I am old enough to remember when this academic @carleton.ca characterized Métis protecting sovereignty through our inherent governance as the ‘gestapo’ and folks were gaslit for demanding accountability for such hate speech. Anyway, actual secret police are operating in the US now. Not a metaphor.

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Jan 19

Frantz Fanon closed _The Wretched of the Earth_ cautioning against reflecting back to Europe a version of itself. He calls for a new man. In Canada, this new man will not come from Indigenous inclusion or integration, but from western society acknowledging its entanglement and indeterminacy.

Fanon closes The Wretched of the Earth with these words: “ Moreover, if we want to respond to the expectations of the Europeans we must not send them back a reflection, however ideal, of their society and their thought that periodically sickens even them. For Europe, for ourselves and for humanity, comrades, we must make a new start, develop a new way of thinking, and endeavor to create a new man.”

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Jan 2

This could be verbatim from the local ‘Tax Alliance’ & their attack on parks, transit, protecting wetlands, libraries, protecting pedestrians and cyclists, and joy. (Their founder lives in a 3.6 million house). neoliberalism is a heckuva drug. praying for class consciousness in 2026…

Screenshot of an Instagram post from Greenpeace, reposted from username “edmondb1967” that says: “Someone at a community meeting asked why the city still invested in public libraries. “People can google anything now,” he said. “why keep paying for buildings?”

The librarian answered, “Because not everyone has WiFi, and not every kid has a table to work at”.

No one had a reply.

Libraries aren’t outdated. They’re the answer for people everyone else forgets.”

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Dec 25

Wayne Emerson Roberts is one of the scientists who raised the alarm on the decline of Alberta species including bull trout and the northern leopard frog in the 1970s and 1980s. I’ve been systematically combing through archives to record his labour and legacy in Alberta.

Article on decline of bull trout featuring Wayne Emerson Roberts, April 1983z

Clipping from Edmonton Journal 1999 featuring Wayne Roberts.

Clipping from Edmonton Journal, early 2000s, featuring Wayne Roberts and detailing how he noticed the decline of northern leopard frogs in Alberta in 1979.

One of many reports of Wayne’s success in fishing derbies in Innisfail in the 1960s 😊

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Dec 20

The Red Deer Advocate, April 1983. Alberta scientists know about bull trout declines because an Indigenous PhD drop out dedicated his time to researching this species instead of climbing the academic ladder in the 70s. They don’t cite him but his legacy still matters.

Screen shot of a story from April 1983 in the Red Deer Advocate about ‘Vanishing Bull Trout’. The story features the late Wayne Emerson Roberts, who was passionately calling for government and scientists to address the decline of the species in Alberta.

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Aug 28

A reminder that this is the person who wants to open up Alberta’s eastern slope headwaters to deleterious and devastating metallurgical coal mining (portrait by Vincent Namatjira)

A wonderfully vivid and unflattering portrait of billionaire coal baron Gina Rinehart by Indigenous artist Vincent Namatjira). A large, pink forehead with brown horse-like mane hanging from it reveals two startled blue eyes and a frown above her chin. She wears a white top.

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Aug 26

North shore Circa 2005. By Garry Todd.

Oil painting of a Red and white stern of a boat in metal scaffolding between old port buildings in North Van.

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Aug 26

Just thinking about my dad’s ship paintings and all the stories he has from moving to Vancouver in the sixties and selling the Georgia Straight for ‘two bits’ on a corner downtown. We got turned down for a local gallery call in Parksville. But I’d love to find a place to show his work.

Oil painting of a red black and yellow ship against a Vancouver coastal background

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Aug 13

Mayors of Nanaimo and North Cowichan want MORE logging — per their plea in May — even as drought stricken clearcut mountainsides burn every summer. 🔥 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Screenshot of a May 2025 article in the Nanaimo News Bulletin titled “Vancouver Island mayors plead with the province to harvest more wood”

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Aug 8

Einstein himself couldn’t reconcile classical western physics with the emerging ‘weirdness’ of a world operating in probability & phenomena that can be both particle+wave, and oneness. Space is not ‘out there’. Relativity was a prelude to a richer, weirder, more accurate understanding of reality.

“ The situation clearly calls for the construction of new theory that encompasses both Newtonian physics and the new discoveries. Although physicists insist that this task calls for new language and immensely complicated theoretical conceptions, in fact the requirement is simply that we banish predetermined ideas about space, time, and the other concepts we have used in science and philosophy. Poetry has once again entered the field as a means of communicating experience, and perceptions of reality demand primacy over conceptions of the mind. Mathematics continues to play an important role in discussing the experiments to be considered, but an adequate explanation of things cannot depend upon the ultimate status of traditional concepts.” Vine Deloria (1979), The Metaphysics of Modern Existence

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Aug 8

DeLoria (1979) explained: “Most of Western society remained Newtonian in outlook while thinkers and philosophers abandoned the belief that nature existed “out there.” In effect, Western science was having to take into account the perceptions it had earlier eliminated from consideration.”

“ Most of Western society remained Newtonian in outlook while thinkers and philosophers abandoned the belief that nature existed “out there.” In effect, Western science was having to take into account the perceptions it had earlier eliminated from consideration.” Vine DeLoria (1979), The Metaphysics of Modern Existence

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Aug 8

Quantum mechanics & special relativity disproved teleology that classical physics fomented. But western society still runs on disproven logics of certainty, the separation of space, time, matter & ‘metaphysics of individualism’. The truth is much weirder+richer. The west must match its own science.

“ When Newtonian physics established a priori that space, time, matter, energy, and causality were inherent in the structure of the universe, and when Newtonian formulas proved immensely successful in exploring the solar system, Western thinkers forgot that these concepts were definitions generated in Newton’s mind, and they came to believe that they were accurate descriptions of ultimate physical processes.” Vine DeLoria, The Metaphysics of Modern Existence

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Aug 8

I’m really grateful to the folks who keep fighting for Alberta and its fish, water, lands, places even in the face of such tough odds. Lorne Fitch is one such person and his two books of essays are excellent. Reading the first book tonight as the sun sets.

Shot of Lorne Fitch’s book ‘Streams of Consequence: Dispatches from the Conservation World’, which features a herd of chocolate brown bison walking towards the viewer across a snowy expanse.

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Jun 27

I went off script and filled my planters with bark mulch and fish compost. And then, inadvertently, I overwatered things a bit. Shockingly, all my vegetable plants refused to grow. Well, it turns out accidentally creating bog conditions will in fact prevent your garden from flourishing. 🤦

Sad plants (some small purple lettuce, green and yellowing onions, and invisible arugula seedlings) in a cedar planter, refusing to grow after two months of unacceptable working conditions.

Sad arugula trying to grow next to some mustard that bolted and kept trying to get me to honour the collective agreement by putting out flowers. Management finally acquiesced and replaced the soil last week.

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Jun 27

Thinking about trouties again. I wrote about them a few years ago here: before-law.com/projects/riv... #InstituteforFreshwaterFishFutures

A square of abstract water colour blues and greens floats above a series of multi-coloured squares and rectangles connected by thin golden lines

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Jun 17

Here’s a presentation I made to the Regional District Electoral Area Services Committee on June 19 calling for legalization of tiny homes and RVs www.instagram.com/reel/C8dqpMG...

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Jun 17

Today I rode my bike that my dad found in a dumpster in Vancouver twenty years ago that’s been retrofitted three times since. I rode the Nanaimo Parkway trail and people smiled and said hello and a driver at a crosswalk yelled ‘nice dress!’ & smiled and waved as I crossed the street. 10/10

Close up of a yellow frame bike with green tires and a black leather saddle. A white sticker that says ‘BIKEGIRL’ is plastered on the top tube.

Bright yellow bike with green tires rests against a bus stop sign post. In the background there is grass, an open horizontal slat wood fence, and greenery

A light skinned person wearing thick rimmed black glasses, with short pixie cut brown hair smiles with a closed mouth at the camera. They are wearing a white and black striped top and a neon yellow bicycle helmet. Behind them the pavement of a city street is visible.

View down a tunnel of green trees and shrubs with a grey asphalt bike lane running vertically through the image, from the lower left hand corner of the image to the upper right.

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Jun 16

Alberta pro-coal music fans ‘discovering’ Corb Lund supports protecting the headwaters of the Eastern Slopes is like an intensely Alberta version of conservative Rage Against the Machine fans discovering that they are, in fact, the machine against which rage is expressed.

Musician Corb Lund announcing he will be on the Ryan Jespersen show to discuss coal mining in the Crowsnest Pass

One ‘A.B. woodpile announcing “y’all behaved like children..but what can you expect from a climate zealot disguised as a musician who plays to failing crowds and wants to pursue a career in politics for the NDP..you’re going to lead these people Internet zero and they’re going to hate you..’ (yes, it makes no sense in the original either)

One Troy Jacobsen announces to the world:

“Well done Corb Lund
Way to capitalize on the free publicity just prior to your season (white supremacist linked hand emoji)
Never waste a moment to stir people up, spread lies amd get a lil free spotlight laugh cry head tilt emoji.
Do you still sign roughest neck around??
That would be too funny” (the poster us ignorant to the fact that Corb Lund was a visible and vocal leader against the Grassy Mountain project circa 2021)

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Jun 12

we are running FISH SCHOOL at the Hollyhock Centre on Cortes Island this October 2-6, 2025. We still have room for six participants. If you're a prof or organization with funding to sponsor tuition for a student or community member, please get in touch. 🐟 💜 hollyhock.ca/programs/754...

"Oct 2-6, 2025
Fish as Storytellers: Intangible Knowledge and Lived Practices
With Zoe Todd and Courtney Chetwynd
Book now and get 10% off accommodation prices. Offer valid until Jul 3, 2025"

Text below an abstract image of neon and dark green seaweed floating in front of an abstract hot pink curvilinear shape. The seaweed is anchored in textured mint green muck. The background is mustard yellow. Abstract circular and ovoid light effects wash across the image.

ZoeSTodd (Dr Fish Philosopher Todd)@zoestodd· Jun 5

The local news coverage of this PRIVATE FOR PROFIT clinic in Qualicum (and now it looks like one in Victoria) in the local news has been rah rah and not critical at all and I'm just really bummed about how there's no real public accountability for the lack of public medical care for folks here.