Welcome to our blog series, Research Highlights! Each month, we debut newly published fisheries research by our women of fisheries colleagues. If you have research you would like to highlight and share with our readers, submit a nomination form!

This Month’s Research Highlight:
Adams, M.S., B. Connors, T. Levi, D. Shaw, J. Walkus, S. Rogers, and C. Darimont. 2021. Local values and data empower culturally guided ecosystem-based fisheries management of the Wuikinuxv Bear–Salmon–Human System. Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science 13:362–378.

There are 630 First Nation communities recognized in Canada (Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada) and 574 federally recognized Indian Nation communities in the United States (National Congress of American Indians). These communities represent a diverse array of identities, cultures, and languages. National Indigenous History Month takes place in June in Canada. We may have missed that one, but we will take this opportunity during Native American Heritage Month in the United States to celebrate the important lessons and contributions from Indigenous peoples to fisheries management throughout North America.  

Contemporary fisheries management in North America is generally  based on western science, which focuses on managing for maximum harvest of a single species without taking into account the broader implications to the ecosystem. In spite of Indigenous management systems being in place for millenia prior to colonization, these systems were disregarded by western management, a practice rooted in injustice and resulting in the loss of local knowledge and management practices. 

Discrepancies in the values and approaches of management for Pacific salmon are especially apparent on the west coast of North America. Large-scale and industrialized commercial harvest, habitat degradation, climate change, and a policy of managing Pacific salmon across large areas and from the top down, instead of at the in-river (i.e., terminal), local population level have threatened the sustainability of these stocks. Indigenous management takes a different approach emphasizing local governance, cultural values, and multigenerational and ecosystem effects of the fishery. Dr. Megan Adams, currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia, states, “As non-Indigenous settler cultures…begin to acknowledge Indigenous knowledge, rights, and ultimately title (the inherent right to land or territory), western science and management is opening its eyes to how Indigenous knowledge and management systems can inform research, policy, and stewardship practices.”

This brings us to this month’s Research Highlight. Dr. Adams, then a Hakai-Raincoast scholar and doctoral student at the University of Victoria, led a study that took an ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) approach to managing sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka in the Wuikinuxv Territory of British Columbia, Canada. The Wuikinuxv Nation, like other Indigenous peoples in Canada, are provided food, social, and ceremonial (FSC) fish harvest rights under the Canadian constitution. Dr. Adams notes, “The federal ‘doctrine of priority’ states that fisheries must be managed such that ecological sustainability, followed by FSC access, are prioritized before any commercial harvest.” Indigenous people in this region have harvested Pacific salmon alongside bears Ursus spp. for millenia. Salmon hold ceremonial and dietary importance for the people; at the same time, bears are considered important components of the ecosystem and also hold a deep cultural value for the people. Thus, the Wuikinuxv Nation was interested in a salmon management approach that would balance the needs of the Nation’s people while also providing for bears and the ecosystem. What started as a collaborative effort between the Wuikinuxv Nation and bear researchers at the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and University of Victoria evolved into a sockeye salmon fisheries assessment that would incorporate bears and the peoples’ needs into a single management framework. Elected Wuikinuxv Chief Councilor and former Stewardship Director Danielle Shaw notes, “If we’re able to mitigate human impacts in a way which gives ecosystems the time and space to adapt to environmental pressures, such as climate change, that same ecosystem will be healthy and abundant enough to support sustainable human use. Instead of managing resources with human use as a focus, we need to steward with the ecosystem as the main priority.”

Dr. Adams and her research team analyzed available sockeye salmon and bear data collected between 1948 and 2018. Inputs included basic fish data like spawner abundance, catch, and age composition, but they also included bear diet and density data. In this way, researchers were able to assess trade-offs between salmon harvest and bear densities. Through this research, it was determined that setting sockeye salmon harvest limits at approximately 10% less than the maximum yield for fishers, a similar 10% reduction in bear densities could be expected. This strategy strikes a desired balance between the needs of the people and the bears who depend on this shared resource, and in turn honors the Wuikinuxv spirit of n̓àn̓akila meaning “to keep an eye on something or someone; a protector or guardian.” 

Dr. Adams sees this research as a starting point, with more work still to be done. For example, there is a need for fine-tuning salmon monitoring methodologies and expanding on this work to predict how future pressures, such as those resulting from climate change, may impact different species in the region. Through continued collaboration and by incorporating local social and cultural values into EBFM frameworks, fisheries management can better balance and serve both human and ecosystem needs. Jennifer Walkus, another study author and former Fisheries Manager and Wuikinuxv Nation Elected Councillor, says it well. “Our Nation has seen the benefits of Indigenous knowledge and western science working together. Wuikinuxv’s holistic views help form research questions that tie previously unrelated science or management policies together. When the Nation drives the research through an integrated lens, it allows scientists to escape the silos they often find themselves in. We can learn more from each other when we work together.” 

Indeed, we are stronger together.

The full manuscript can be found and downloaded here:
https://doi.org/10.1002/mcf2.10171

Original press release:
https://www.raincoast.org/press/2021/looking-ahead-for-each-other-new-study-shows-how-the-wuikinuxv-nation-shares-sockeye-with-neighbouring-grizzly-bears/

Unpacking differences among western and Indigenous systems of salmon management:
https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaa144