The Aboriginal Aquaculture Association (AAA) has told the federal government that current policies over geoduck resources were “not a level playing field”.

Earlier this year, Fisheries and Oceans Canada invited all interested coastal First Nation people to provide input into plans for new federal rules for aquaculture in British Columbia. It also asked for help in developing a national aquaculture strategic action plan.

The AAA, whose executive director is Chief Richard Harry of Homalco Nation, was contracted to coordinate and facilitate meetings and to assist First Nations in responding to the information that was presented.

In its review published in April, the AAA wrote about access to wild aquatic resources as it applied to aquaculture:

“First Nations are interested in the culture of species offering sound economic returns, but they also have a strong interest in their native species for uses other than strict commercial production…

“First Nations also need access to geoduck in order to develop culture opportunities. In their view, the current geoduck policy papers were written for the Underwater Harvesters [Association]. As it stands, First Nations will be denied access to wild geoduck stocks that are proposed to be harvested as a ‘purge fishery’ prior to re-planting culture stocks in their tenures, when these resources could be used to help finance start up operations.

“First Nations require fair and equitable access to the geoduck resource if their goals are to be realized. To them this means policies that provide equal access to everyone, not those intended to protect the interests of commercial, non-First Nation fishers.

“We note that an aquaculture allocation of black cod (sablefish) is given in the integrated fisheries management plan for this species. First Nations suggest that an important step in developing aquaculture for other wild resources is to include allocations for aquaculture in all fisheries management plans. A stock access policy that prioritizes only the existing fishers is not a level playing field.”

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Estuaries provide resource riches with carbon extras

Decades-long efforts to save and preserve estuaries around the Salish Sea suddenly got a lot more important.

The Sierra Club of BC recently produced a report called Blue Carbon that puts the Chemainus and Nanaimo Rivers’ estuaries as having some of the best potential of capturing carbon emissions from fossil fuels.

And the report validates decades-long efforts of two Naut’sa mawt Tribal Council nations – Halalt and Snuneymuxw – to restore and maintain the health of their estuaries.

Estuaries better than forests for carbon capture

So why are estuaries so important? The answer lies in the eelgrass beds that are in the inter-tidal zones in estuaries and along our shores. Similar seagrass beds, mangrove swamps and salt marshes around the world could play a significant role in capturing carbon, says the Blue Carbon report.

In BC alone, estuaries have the capacity to sequester 180,000 tonnes of carbon every year. The province’s 400 square kilometers of salt marsh and seagrass meadows can capture as much carbon as the BC’s boreal forest. That is the equivalent of the emissions of some 200,000 passenger cars every year.

The water in oceans quickly absorbs much of the carbon from the use of fossil fuels. They become more acidic in the process, which affects all life in the oceans. And the carbon is only temporarily captured in oceans. Healthy estuaries capture carbon deep in sediments… for thousands of years.

But estuaries are some of the most threatened ecosystems in the world. Areas once rich in resources are daily threatened by development and human activity.

The Chemainus River estuary

The Chemainus River estuary is one of the most important in BC as a source of ‘blue carbon’.

Halalt First Nation has been working for almost 20 years to help restore the huge estuary. It is becoming healthier as well as a financially productive place. Despite the fact that Crofton pulp mill looms over the estuary, Halalt has seeded clam beds and built up a depuration harvest of about 300,000 pounds per year.

Five years ago, NmTC helped fund the Shoal Islands Economic Development Initiative. That comprehensive project brought many stakeholders together – from the river’s users to biologists and farmers – to work on some of the problems that affect watersheds and estuaries everywhere.

Today, discussions are about to start about creating a Chemainus River watershed management plan. Talks between the many stakeholders – from municipal water users to forestry companies – are in the early stages.

The Nanaimo River estuary

It is easy for Snuneymuxw members to see the result that decades of industrial use had on the estuary of the Nanaimo River as well as that of the adjacent mouth of Chase River. They just have to look out their windows.

The river empties into Nanaimo Harbour beside the growing population on Snuneymuxw’s three rural reserves. And the main downtown reserve has a good view of the pilings that dot the estuary, waiting for the next log boom, as well as the distant view of the Duke Point industrial lands.

There is a now a new threat, a $22 million downtown cruise ship terminal. Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited on Sept. 8 to get a project update from the Nanaimo Port Authority. The federal government invested $8 million in the project.

But in June, Snuneymuxw presented the port authority its environmental assessment of construction of the project including worries about dredging and damage to eelgrass beds.

“Everyone seems to doing more and more damage to the estuary,” Chief Doug White told the Nanaimo Bulletin “We will do whatever we can to repair the damage. We’re no longer able to use the estuary but it will always be part of our lives.”

In early September, Snuneymuxw threatened to go to court to halt the terminal work. Chief Doug White said the Nanaimo Port Authority was not taking seriously his people's concerns over the protection of the estuary.

In addition to physical damage to the estuary, recent reports have raised worries about the toxins that cruise ships often bring to ports. They include sulphur dioxide, nitrous gases and a variety of particulate matter.

Snuneymuxw continues to work with the Port of Nanaimo to remediate any negative effects created from the cruise ship development.

More info:

Blue Carbon: www.sierraclub.bc.ca

Air Quality Report:

www.crd.bc.ca/reports/environmentalsustain_/2008_/aqreport2008/aqreport2008.pdf

Nanaimo Port Authority: www.npa.ca

 

Surrounded by sockeye, Cohen Commission hears about their disappearance

Judge Bruce Cohen is probably feeling that his days were somehow ironic this summer. The BC Supreme Court justice is now known as Commissioner Cohen. He is leading the $15 million federal inquiry into the dramatic disappearance of the 2009 Fraser River sockeye run.

Last year, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans was forecasting more than 10 million sockeye, but only about 10 per cent of that number returned to the river.

But then, as Cohen and others on the commission began to travel around BC for a series of public forums on the issue, the fish was suddenly on everyone’s mind… and lips as an equally dramatic record number of sockeye made their appearance in 2010.

NmTC nations well represented

Many Naut’sa mawt Tribal Council nations will be involved in some way in the commission by the time the inquiry comes to an end and a final report is written for government sometime next year. Cohen’s report will be based on the series of public forums and hearings he will hold.

The public forums are almost complete and the evidentiary hearings start in late October. They will proceed much like the court sessions that the commissioner is used to. In all, 21 separate parties or groups have been given official standing in the hearings. They will be represented by lawyers and will be able to call and question witnesses.

In addition to the governments of BC and Canada, other hearing participants with standing include:

• Tsawwassen joining Musqueam and Maa-nulth Treaty Society;
• Stz’uminus joining Snaw-naw-as and other members of the Te’mexw Treaty Association in a group called Western Central Coast Salish First Nations; and
• Snuneymuxw and the other Douglas Treaty nations in a large group called First Nations Coalition;

Chief Richard Harry of Homalco, who attended a forum in Campbell River as an observer, said he was looking forward to the hearings. He is also head of the Aboriginal Aquaculture Association. That organization has joint standing with the Laich-kwil-tach Treaty Society, James Walkus and Chief Harold Sewid.

Much of the commission’s estimated $15 million budget will go toward paying for the hundreds of hours of fees from lawyers who will be representing the various groups given standing at the hearings.

Full house at Campbell River forum

One of the first public forums the commission held was in Campbell River on August 25.

There was a full house to hear three hours of comments from a variety of sources. They ranged from salmon farm technicians and traditional harvesters to wilderness and environmental groups. But the focus of speakers was on salmon aquaculture and its effects on sockeye that took up most of the evening. The commissioner could have been excused if he thought he was part of an inquiry into fish farming.

The first speaker was former Homalco chief Darren Blaney who, although long an opponent of fish farms, said he hoped the inquiry would produce some common ground.

“I think there is an opportunity to all work together to look after our salmon,” he said. “Now, we are dealing with doubt. Scientists on one side look at all the impacts and the scientists on the other side say there are no impacts… for a lack of clarity we are putting our salmon at risk. Closed-containment will eliminate all that.”

Blaney explained that when he was chief, Homalco took the province to court over the impacts of fish farms. “Our band spent about $500,000 to show we had a prima facie case… the impacts fish farms have on migrating salmon.”

“When there are impacts on the salmon coming from the Fraser, you have to understand that there are aboriginal rights that extend from the edge of the Fraser.”

He admitted that he was one of many who were thrilled by this year’s huge sockeye returns. “Take a look at all the excitement in all the communities this year, all the fishermen who are out there and the economic activity that’s generated from the salmon. It is very important to understand that.”

He also asked the commissioner to understand that: “The importance of salmon to First Nations in poverty becomes even more extreme.”

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Historians were once defined as “people who mix up what we know”. Hopefully, they are already rewriting the history books when it comes to the Coast Salish Peoples.

A recent archaeology project in Tla’amin (Sliammon) territory in Desolation Sound is just the latest confirmation of what our Elders always told us. Whether it was using fish weirs, traps, nets and spears, building clam gardens or ‘grooming’ camas beds, our ancestors knew what they were doing and they did it well, using sophisticated, complicated and appropriate technologies that sustained them for millennia.

“We can now prove what our old people have always said – our territory supported thousands of people, more than live here now, that owned and managed vast tracts of lands and resources including waterways, mountains, islands in a sustainable manner. They found ways to do this without destroying the landscape and depleting the resources around them by seasonal family sharing and trading what they had with neighboring nations. This was a very complex system steeped in protocol.”

That is Michelle Washington talking about a project that partners Tla’amin and Simon Fraser University (SFU) in an archaeology and stewardship program. It is a community-based, participant-driven exploration of what archaeology is and what it does.

Now in its third year, the program brings together the Tla’amin oral traditions with information gained from archaeological investigation. One of the stated aims of the program is: “To advance Tla’amin goals of self-governance, self-determination, and self-representation”.

All around the Salish Sea, we are discovering old ways of doing things through the oral teachings of our Elders and research by academic people. The look into the past is also revealing ways that could help all Coastal people sustain themselves in the future.

‘Using the rhythm of nature to feed our people’

Work started in 2008 at Kleh Kwa Num (Scuttle Bay), a place where Elders knew was used to gather and process foods such as herring and Saskatoon berries. Excavations showed stone and bone artifacts, the remains of plant and animal foods, indications of numerous longhouses and a petroglyph.

This year work is continuing in Desolation Sound where mapping has shown that Tla’amin ancestors were changing beaches to trap fish, to increase shellfish habitat and make smooth places for canoes.

“We now have several sites at the 8,000-year mark,” said Washington. “These inter-tidal sites still work today after hundreds to thousands of years. Some of them were actually outlawed when the canneries came in.

“We have lost a lot over the years to industry and development but there is still so much that we can learn from,” she said. “There are so many catch phrases now about the 100-mile diet, the growing of native plants… people are starting to wake up to the damage we have done to our surroundings by ‘manicuring’ everything and being so wasteful.

“Many of the beaches they are on are no longer viable due to industry contamination or the destruction of habitat. These sites were natural ways of gathering that used the natural currents, seasons, and several year-round species and they did not have to destroy everything in order to work.

“We can bring them back and use the rhythm of nature to feed our people and balance with nature again.

“The funniest part is that our old people always said this in all of our teachings and our stories, songs, but nobody wanted to listen because they didn't have an academic background.”

Respect and awe

Dr Dana Lepofsky, one of the SFU project directors, said that the work so far “gives us a huge amount of respect and awe for the technologies and people of the past. Sliammon rightfully has a huge amount of pride for the complexity of the systems we are learning about.

“There was clearly a large population living off the land and sea in a sustained way,” Lepofsky said. “Sometimes resources were hit, but it was clearly a sustainable economy.

“People were harvesting with local observations and had a vested interest. They knew that if you over-harvest, then there is not going to be food for next year.

“We see things like people choosing among different resources. If they got a lot of a resource early in the season, they might take less of another one. They would do this ‘dance to the season’.

She said that there was no such word in the Tla’amin language as ‘by-catch’, adding that when such words exist in any language “it shows how disconnected to the resource we actually are”.

But the Tla’amin ancestors not only managed the quantity of their resources. They also created sophisticated harvesting technologies.

“These management features (such as fish traps) modified the landscape to both capture efficiently, but also to manage in other ways. Capturing is one kind of management: what you’re going to capture; how much you’re going to capture; and to enhance them when needed.”

The technologies themselves varied as to use and place. Clam gardens, for instance, were suited to circumstance, but, said Lepofsky, they were “clearly meant to enhance productivity so that people could harvest abundantly and sustainably.

“The fish traps were beautifully designed to capture fish. They could have easily wiped out local stocks if they wanted to, but they didn’t, so that showed that they were managing the resource.

But the stone alignments that exist in the inter-tidal zones along the coast were not necessarily use for just one resource or just one purpose. Lepofsky said that phrases like ‘fish traps’ and ‘clam gardens’ are something of a misnomer. They could have been holding ponds for fish stock, traps for harvesting or places to cultivate and manage shellfish. They often were used for many purposes and not necessarily just one resource.

“It’s a pretty powerful story about long-term use that by definition was sustainable.”

Learning from the past

Lepofsky said the historical treasures being discovered in Tla’amin territory have much relevance today as Coastal people, of all cultures, deal with disappearing fish stocks, contaminated shellfish and the disappearance of habitat on both land and sea.

“What can we learn from that?” she asked. “That it’s not just about harvesting less. It’s about harvesting differently.

“Elders tell me about transplanting eggs and about transplanting oolichan by the boatload and restocking them. There are all kinds of neat stories about local management that we need to pay attention to.”

Lepofsky said that the Tla’amin-SFU team is learning to appreciate the sophisticated and complicated technologies that were used.

“They were so complicated that I don’t have a hope of understanding everything. It would take a lifetime.

The inter-tidal zones were ‘whole systems’ with everything working together.

She said in modern society, “We all have a sense of entitlement, that we should have access to everything. But we have to say that there are some things we cannot export.”

Seafood resources such as sockeye or herring roe should be considered delicacies and if they are exported, premium prices should be paid for them.

More info at: www.sliammonfirstnation.com/archaeology/index.html

www.youtube.com/user/SFUmuseum

Clam gardens celebrated by book

Clam gardening was celebrated in the 2006 book by Judith Williams entitled Clam Gardens: Aboriginal Mariculture on Canada’s West Coast.

The book centres on the traditional territories of the Klahoose, Homalco and Sliammon. Williams was prompted to write by information supplied by Elders such as Elizabeth Harry, Keekus, and places visited such as Old and New Church House and Wyatt Bay.

Clam gardens, Williams discovered, are all around the Coast if only one knows what to look for.

The places where clams were tended and harvested have a firm place in oral history. But officialdom likes things in writing, so works such as Clam Gardens will help change the thinking of provincial archeologists who have historically dismissed the fact that they even exist.

“Now that the existence of clam garden cultivation is being accepted,” Williams writes, “we cannot ignore the importance of ancient clam beds and other traditional food resources to the contemporary economy of Native communities.

“The clam gardens were and are a coastal treasure. Unique living artifacts, they are still usable sources of food and exchange items for the local population.”

Clam Gardens is published by New Star Books.

More info at: www.newstarbooks.com

New gardens in Snuneymuxw territory

Clam gardens were discovered this spring at Gabriola Passage.

Now, Snuneymuxw First Nation wants to get aerial surveys of the entire region as it adds to its knowledge of traditional methods of harvesting and food production.

The clam gardens are near Gabriola Island. Similar formations have been found in inter-tidal areas in the area around Dodd Narrows.

Two years ago, Snuneymuxw fisheries workers discovered ancient fishing weirs in the Chase River estuary just south of the main reserve near downtown Nanaimo.