Use of historical knowledge in fisheries management

Tonya Smith & Bryan Wong

Can Historical Names and Fishers’ Knowledge Help to Reconstruct the Distribution of Fish Populations in Lakes? –Johan Spens, 2007.

Spens 2007 was the first in primary literature to employ

lake names in revealing pre-industrial fish distribution Map historical distribution of local brown trout populations:

no study has been done before this to map historical brown trout ranges or understand the extinction rate

Understanding how anthropogenic changes in freshwater ecosystems in Europe have eradicated or reduced brown trout populations throughout their range

Previously, methods available were interviews and archival data: singular brief snapshot at a local scale

This study enabled historic names and fishers’ knowledge into wider landscapes with a historical dimension

“Was the first in primary literature…”

Historical place names; Rö-lakes

Limnology reports to verify suitable habitat

Gill netting and electro fishing

Fishermen interviews

TEMPORAL COMPONENT OF DATA

Aybes & Yalden (1995). Place-name evidence for the former distribution

and status of wolves and beavers in Britain. Mamm. Rev. 25(4): 201-226.

Cox, Maehr & Larkin (2002). The Biogeography of Faunal Place Names in the United States. Conserv.Biol. 16(4): 1143-1150.

Place names of range-limited species demonstrated strong fidelity to historical ranges.

spatial patterns of faunal place names are important indicators of a species' historical distribution

these place names reflect culturally important connections between humans and native fauna

analysis of place names may provide important biogeographical information for maintaining or restoring species and habitat components

Support for paper

Wallace (1998) mentions the use of mapped

place names to indicate past occurrences of sturgeon, whale and halibut banks within the SoG than were once productive fishing habitat gone extinct

Souza and Garcia-Marillo (2001) tested and verified the feasibility of using place names as indicators of historical landscape

Similar papers

“got this idea from Tony Pitcher, former head

of the Fisheries Center of UBC. He mentioned use of names for their world famous "Back to the future" -program to me when he visited Sweden back in 2000.”-Johan Spens

Inspiration for paper

Zoology.ubc.ca

Reconstructing the Strait of Georgia

Ecosystem Multidisciplinary workshop held in November

1997 Present, 100 years ago before commercial

fisheries, 500 years ago before native and European contact

BACK TO THE FUTURE PROGRAM

Ecologyandsociety.org

Fish names and fishing related terms

extracted from:T. Montler, 1991. Saanich North Straits Salish Classified Word

List.

Realized close associations between Saanich people and the coastal resources of the San Juan Islands and Strait of Georgia

Illustrated the need for cross validation by natural scientists of word lists in building a reliable database

Native Oral Tradition Using Fish-related Terms from the Saanich Language

(Jean Paul Danko 1998)

Thekey’• Sockeye• July

Henen’• Humpback salmon• August

Thaw’en• Coho• September

(Montler 1991)

Saanich Salishan

SPENS 2007 AIMTHEORYHYPOTHESIS

to show historical lake names from maps,

together with limnological surveys, can be useful indicators of past and present fish distribution if properly validated

FISHERS’ + SURVEYS + MAP = BROWN TROUT

AIM

+ +

=ALL PHOTOS PUBLIC DOMAIN WIKICOMMONS

Conventional scientific research done with multi-mesh sized

gillnets would be too costly, time consuming and labour intensive to map the thousands of lakes required to study landscape-size presence and absence of fish populations

Therefore attempt to validate historical names from interviews with local fisherman to gather data for larger-scale study

Interviews make it possible to understand changes over the past 80 years, and longer if pieced together with fragmented and rare archival data

Lake names with species are potentially valuable historical records of fisher’s knowledge

THEORY

The proportion of “historical brown trout term”

lakes (Ro lakes) with/without brown trout populations is the same as for other lakes with/without such populations

JOHAN’S HYPOTHESIS

1509 lakes and over 700000 ha of the lake watersheds

in the northern boreal region of Sweden (vasternorrland and parts of vasterbotten)

Used one geographic region rather than random sampling of lakes to increase the likelihood of detecting phenomenon in local dialects relevant to the distribution of brown trout

AREA

PHOTO PUBLIC DOMAIN WIKICOMMONS

Area is sparsely populated and majority of

lakes belong to 63 privately owned fisheries management organizations

FMOs are associations of private landowners in this region sell licenses to fishers and manage waters, as well as provide information about the fisheries

AREA

Collected interviews with older fishers and 250

local fishing rights owners in FMOs between 1985-2001, focusing on current species distributions, stocking, introductions and extinctions in all lakes

Also collected similar information conducted by interviews of local fishers in remaining areas not organized by FMOs

METHODS

Began with structured questions of fish species distribution,

spawning areas and stalking Less organized part of the interview worked to evaluate

fishers general knowledge and get additional contacts who could provide knowledge about specific areas, fish species or historic events involving the fishery

In return, fishers were given information about conservation and management of lakes, creating a comprehensive knowledge exchange

Data regarding fish presence and absence was collected using two primary sources that confirmed each other

INTERVIEWS

Other Data used included archival data (from

three major forestry companies, country and municipality administration, FMOs, The National Board of Fishers etc), historical names from maps (from the Swedish Land Survey 1961-7 and parish, ordinance or village maps dating back to 1672) and limnological surveys (1985-2001)

INTERVIEWS CONTINUED…

Fishers suggested that several hundred of the surveyed

lakes held fish Some were eliminated because they’d been stocked,

featured translocated fish or were dependent on hatcheries Others were eliminated were insufficient trout habitat was

found (ie. No substrate for spawning) The majority of the remaining lakes (162) were verified by

gillnet surveys and found to contain past or present self sustaining trout populations

Quality control of presence/absence

Rö No Rö Total Frequency

Brown 47 115 162 0.11

Trout

No Brown 4 1343 1347 0.89

Trout

Sum 51 1458 1509 1

• 29% of all lakes with historic or present brown trout populations had Rö in its name

• 92% of Brown Trout lakes had Rö as part of its name• 11% chance a randomly chosen lake would be a have brown trout in itHypothesis: the number of Rö lakes with/without brown trout is proportionate to number of Brown Trout populations if any lake is randomly chosen….is rejectedTherefore: Rö Lakes were associated with historic or present self sustainable populations

Re s u l t s

Interviewees were successful in identifying all lakes with

past or present self sustaining brown trout populations (though 2 lakes mentioned had populations that had gone extinct and 2 had been stocked)

interviewees may have been slightly overly optimistic regarding self-sustaining populations (maybe also unaware of recent extinctions)

validated with combined data from test-fishing results, stocking records, other archival data and habitat surveys

Also validated fishers knowledge of lakes with an absence of brown trout

No new populations unknown to interviewees were discovered

Interview Results

Interviews stated that 10 of the Ro lakes had lost

brown trout populations in last 80 years, confirmed by archival data and test fishing2 additional lakes were found to have experienced extinctions through test fishing

Limnological surveys and archival data suggest that all lakes with extinct populations had experienced major anthropogenic changes more so than lakes where populations still existed

Extinctions

Gillnetting lacks temporal perspective can miss extinct spp

Historical names useful for pre industrial distributions

Interviews can verify presence or absence reliably

Goal for restoration or management

Spatial and temporal data, linked to traditional

names, can be used in a variety of ways: Identify suitable habitat Obtain landscape inventories of fish species Anthropogenic impacts or past natural

disturbances can be identified when named species are not present

Works with statistics to provide information about lakes over large areas rather than alone as a brief, single snapshot

Historic names--“Rö-lakes”

3 lakes with ro in the name were omitted

because found to have originated with Ry, meaning something other than brown trout

Also used röding for arctic char, but rö lakes were found to be unsuitable habitat for arctic char

Problems in Translations

Historical names in maps convey important

fishers knowledge on environmental history, which can be important for conservation and management

Simple map overview successfully identified 1/3 of all lakes in 1509 containing brown trout

Same amount by sampling of gillnets would take 5 years and would miss extinct populations and lack the temporal perspective indicated by the map names

Discussion

Integrating historical fishers names and

knowledge can be used in fisheries sciences to move from a brief snapshots at local scale into landscape-wide context with a historical scale

Inspiration

Rembrandt Public Domian Wikicommons

What is TLEK?

Slowmuse.wordpress.com

TLEK

Develops over a long period of time

Is experienced-basedHas important socio-

cultural and biological dimensions

dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Why Use TLEK?

Local people very aware of spatial and temporal

distribution of the resource, critical habitat and ecological

linkages and changes over timeapagemedia.com

Why Use TLEK?Good source of knowledge for

remote places that may be poorly studied

swedenfishing.com

Why Use TLEK?

Provides community support for

management plans

Usp.ac.fj

Allows for information collection on a limited

budget

Why Use TLEK?

www.peanutbutterandjenny.com

Legal incentives and implications

Why Use TLEK?

Challenges of Incorporating TLEK

Cultural ChallengesTEK is often closely

associated with beliefs, values and experiences

Can create distortion of information while

being used in scientific research

Challenges of Incorporating TLEK

Purpose of the project that the knowledge is

being used for and how it is incorporated

Challenges of Incorporating TLEK

Issues of power dynamics and increasing

access to information

Challenges of Incorporating TLEK

Current Applications

of TLEK

1. Pollution and ecotoxicology2. Lunar rhythms and fishing3. Daily weather predictions, seasons and fishing schedules4. Traditional technology, selection of gear, and techniques5. Spawning and aggregations of fish6. Location and identification of rare or endangered fish species7. Systems topography and traditional fishing spots8. Division of labour in fisheries

Potential ApplicationsJude Mathooko in Hydrobologia

Explicitly acknowledge existence and value of

TLEK Understand value to knowledge holders and

create co-operative management Investigate why western science and

traditional knowledge do not agree

Principles of Incorporating TLEK

1. Awareness2. Discussion3. Co-managment4. Surveying use of TLEK

Recommendations

Aboriginal Aquatic Resource and Oceans

Management Program Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy Aboriginal Funds for Species at Risk

Program Pacific Intergrated Commercial Fisheries

Initiative

Inclusion of TLEK by DFO

Monitoring and reporting on the effectiveness

of these and similar initiatives Traditional knowledge is a useful tool for both

increased information for fisheries conservation and management and the inclusion of local knowledge holders in resource management planning

Conclusions

Aybes & Yalden (1995). Place-name evidence for the former distribution and status of wolves and beavers in Britain.

Mamm. Rev. 25(4): 201-226.

Cox, Maehr & Larkin (2002). The Biogeography of Faunal Place Names in the United States. Conserv.Biol. 16(4): 1143-1150.

Danko, Jean Francois. 1998. Building a Reliable Database from a Native Oral Tradition Using Fish-Related Terms from the Saanich Language. In UBC Fisheries Centre Research Reports. Edited by D. Pauly, T.J. Pitcher and D. Preikshot. Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. pp. 29-33.

DFO Website: http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/abor-autoc/agreements-ententes-eng.htm

Mathooko, Jude Mutuku (2005). Application of traditional ecological knowledge in the management and sustainability of fisheries in East Africa: a long-neglected strategy? Hydrobiologia 537(1): 1 – 6

Montler, Timothy. 1991. Saanich, north straits Salish classified word list. Canadian Ethnology Service Paper No. 119, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, p. 171.

Murray, Carol. (2011). Incorporation of traditional and local ecological knowledge and values in fisheries management. Canadian Electronic Library (Firm); ESSA Technologies (Firm); Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council.

Wallace, Scott, S. 1998. Sources of Information Used to Create Past and Present Ecosystem Models of the Strait of Georgia. In UBC Fisheries Centre Research Reports. Edited by D. Pauly, T.J. Pitcher and D. Preikshot. Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. pp. 19-21.

References

Questions