How We Fish Matters: Addressing the Ecological Impacts of Canadian Fishing Gear
Living Oceans Society teamed up with the Ecology Action Centre and the Marine Conservation Biology Institute to study the impacts of various fishing gears used in Canada. The report, How We Fish Matters, ranks the impacts of 13 different fishing gear types and makes recommendations to support a more sustainable fishery.
“This study is the first of its kind in Canada,” notes John Driscoll, Sustainable Fisheries Campaign Manager at Living Oceans Society. “It is a comprehensive study of the impacts that Canadian fishing gears have on habitat and incidentally-caught and discarded species. The real value of this study is that it is a clean and simple summary of a vast amount of information – not only scientific data, but also the combined experience of dozens of fishermen, scientists, managers, and fisheries professionals. We literally drew upon hundreds of years’ worth of experience in Canadian fisheries.”
This study was completed in three stages: first, there was a literature review of existing scientific studies on the impacts of fishing gear; next, a rating of the impacts of fishing gear by fishermen, scientists, and conservation professionals; a survey of 97 professionals from different sectors working with fisheries who ranked the ecological impacts of 13 different gear types.
“One of the most interesting findings of our report is that fishermen, fisheries managers, scientists and conservation organizations all agreed on the level of impacts caused by different fishing gears,” says Dr. Ratana Chuenpagdee of Memorial University in Newfoundland, one of the report’s authors. “This consensus provides an important basis from which we can move forward in improving fisheries management and protecting our marine environment to ensure sustainable fisheries into the future.”
The main recommendations (taken directly from the study) are as follows:
1. Fisheries managers should immediately implement ecologically risk averse strategies to minimize the impacts of fishing gear on habitat and bycatch. Strategies include habitat protection, access to fishing grounds and quota allocations based on gear substitution.
2. Undertake adequate monitoring, research and data collection on fishing gear impacts to habitat and non-target species, Findings should be made publicly available to support better ocean management.
3. Implement, inform and develop policies and management practices that prioritize the minimization of habitat destruction and bycatch.
Driscoll adds that this study is a very important tool to aid us in making appropriate fisheries management decisions in the future: “The study shows that the ecological impacts of commercial fishing could be reduced by shifting fishing effort away from those gears that have the highest impacts to gears that have lower impacts.”
Click here to download the full report.
State of Ocean Concerns Coastal Residents
Vern Sampson, our Local Ecological Knowledge Coordinator provides an update of his work collecting local knowledge about coastal ecosystems.
Happy New Year! I think that this would be a good time to bring our readers up to date on Living Oceans Society’s ongoing Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) Project. As many of our readers and supporters may know, in 2005 Living Oceans Society developed a LEK methodology for interviewing local fishermen and other marine stakeholders about areas of importance to their work. Every LEK interview we conduct with locally is considered an opportunity for discussion on ocean issues. I believe sustainable marine ecosystem and resource management objectives can be achieved by using sound science informed by the knowledge that exists in local communities. In 2007 we started our LEK Project to engage a wider range of people on the coast and to compliment the work we did from 2002–2006 in our Fisheries Use Analysis.
Since 2007, while working part time I have had the privilege of conducting 43 interviews with very interesting people who have a wide range of knowledge of our coastal ecology.
I have talked to people from Campbell River to Prince Rupert and many of the communities in between. In 2008 I interviewed 24 people. We used 20 different marine charts while capturing new local knowledge and following up on previous local knowledge data collections. I talked to people involved in commercial fishing, sport fishing, marine transportation, tourism, whale watching, scuba diving and even retired folks who live on their boats year round.
This LEK data will be summarized in a way that is accessible and useful to coastal communities, especially so that cultural and economic uses and values can be documented, while also keeping personal information confidential. I feel that this information is very important within marine planning processes.
I have observed in my travels and interviews that most of the people I talk to on the coast are becoming increasingly worried about the state of our coastal environment. They feel that a marine planning process such as Pncima is long overdue and are extremely worried about our iconic but diminishing salmon stocks.
In 2009 I am looking forward to meeting new stakeholders, keeping in touch with friends and collegues up and down the coast and continuing with Living Oceans Society’s solutions-based work.
If you are interested in setting up an interview, or want some more information about Living Oceans Society’s local knowledge project, you can contact me at 250-973-6580 or vsampson@livingoceans.org.
Coastal Voice - Jackie Hildering
Meet this issue's coastal voice - biologist and marine educator, Jackie Hildering. The Education Coordinator on the North Vancouver Island for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), the Head Naturalist for Stubbs Island Whale Watching, the president of the Top Island Econauts Club, and the Leader of the Young Naturalists Club for Northern Vancouver Island. We caught up with Jackie on a sunny winter afternoon in Port McNeill.
Coastal Voices: Tell us about yourself and about how you came to the coast.
Jackie Hildering: I am originally from British Columbia but I left to teach high school biology in the Netherlands for 14 years. Ten years ago, after going on a whale watching trip in B.C. while on holidays, I realized how removed I had become from nature, and it was on this trip that I decided to return home to Coastal B.C. for good. I’ve been here ever since!
CV: What do you love most about our coastal area?
JH: I love that, here on the North Island; you cannot forget your place in nature. We are reminded every day that ultimately, nature rules. Furthermore, I feel very privileged that my personal skill sets have allowed me to be of use in the area – with a background in environmental education and with an international perspective, I am able to fully appreciate how exceptional our beautiful surroundings are and I enjoy sharing my knowledge with others.
CV: What are your biggest concerns for our coastal area?
JH: My biggest concern is that in our rural and resource-rich area, our small population does not have a strong enough electoral base to influence those in the cities who are making the decisions about how our resources are used. I worry that the decision-makers are only looking at the short-term economy. They are selling out our ecosystem by making decisions about our fisheries, logging and water that do not serve us in the long term.
CV: What do you think should be the priority items for marine planning in the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area (Pncima)?
JH: A priority for those engaged in marine planning in the Pncima region is to dispel the misperception that public protection of the environment requires zero resource use. Everyone can be involved in and can benefit from marine planning and it should not be the environmental agenda versus the economy.
I would like to see everyone agree on a precautionary approach to planning, where we focus on planning for the longevity of our coast and not just short-term economic benefits. I also think that it will be essential for those who are planning on our coast to adequately consider species listed by Canada's Species At Risk Act (SARA) in this planning process.
Finally, we have an imminent threat with the potential of oil and tanker traffic coming to our coast. If this happens, it could utterly ruin our marine ecosystem. We can use the Pncima planning process to influence our decision-makers to ensure that this does not happen.
CV: Do youth have a role to play in the future of the Pacific North Coast?
JH: Absolutely. In order to ensure the health of our environment for years to come, we need to give youth a sense of connectedness to nature and an understanding of the limits of human ingenuity to solve environmental problems. When youth realize how important the environment is to them, they will become more proactive in ensuring its protection.
By empowering our youth to take what small action they can towards helping our environment, be it through changing the type of light bulb their family uses or going outside to pick up litter off the beach, we are shattering the idea that normal people can't make a difference. Small acts are cumulative but they also shape attitudes, and we must remember that these empowered youth will turn into an empowered electorate in the future.
Coastal Voices Blog - Stay Informed about Ocean Issues
If you want to stay informed about the issues that affect your ocean, both locally and globally, check out our blog. The Coastal Voices Blog is updated daily with news and views about the issues affecting coastal communities.
Visit it at coastalvoices.blogspot.com and subscribe to our RSS feed to make sure that you never miss one of our interesting posts about the ocean!
Do you live on the coast and have something to say? Become a Coastal Voice by expressing your views in the comments section after each post.
We want to give people in coastal communities a louder a voice. Let us record you talking about the ocean issues that are important to you. Contact Heather (haldersey@livingoceans.org) to set up a video interview that we’ll show on our blog. Or look out for Heather in your North Island town or community event. She’ll be asking fun questions to people on the street about the ocean and videotaping the responses to post on Coastal Voices Blog.
