While we employ a Western scientific method and share our results in an academic voice, the ideas we explore can also be conveyed through other ways of knowing and communicating. Artist-scientist, Nicole Jung, created The Ripples of Ancestral Stewardship as she imagined the authority, guidance, and ongoing presence of the Nuu-chah-nulth ancestors, and the potential this collaboration holds for restoring balanced relations between fish and people. Nicole is a settler-descendent of Chinese immigrants who lives in W̱ SÁNEĆ territory on Vancouver Island, Canada.

By Philina A. English, Candace M. Picco, Jessica C. Edwards, Dana R. Haggarty, Robyn E. Forrest, and Sean C. Anderson.

Read the full paper here.

Nutrient-rich waters along the Pacific coast of North America support diverse fish communities that have helped sustain coastal peoples for millennia. These fish communities include dozens of species of rockfish as well as other more commercially prized species such as Pacific Halibut (halibut). Some rockfish are particularly vulnerable to overfishing since they are long lived and slow to mature. Yelloweye Rockfish (yelloweye) is a potential “choke” species when targeting Pacific Halibut. A choke species is one that is frequently caught when targeting a different species and where fishing regulations dictate that fishing for the target species must stop when a certain quantity of the choke species has been caught.

Five Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations on the west coast of what is now known as Vancouver Island, Canada hold constitutional Indigenous rights to operate a community fishery. A 2009 court decision limited these Indigenous rights to within 9 nautical miles of the coast; community members interpreted this limit as the government not fully recognizing the knowledge and authority of the traditional leadership. It also raised concerns about the potential for an increase in unintended rockfish catches.

Here, using both scientific survey and commercial catch data and guided by the insights and advice of five Nations’ fishers and knowledge holders, we investigated the effects of fishing depth and limitations on the number of potential fishing locations on the predicted catch of yelloweye and halibut. We found evidence that fishing at depths deeper than 175m, which occur outside to the 9 nautical mile boundary, would provide more opportunities for catching halibut while avoiding yelloweye, than are currently available within this relatively shallow near-shore area.

Our approach to this fisheries rights and management issue is an example of how Western conservation scientists can engage in co-production of knowledge with Indigenous peoples to balance Indigenous rights and species conservation more effectively.