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Mapping Cod: Fisheries Science, Fish Harvesters’ Ecological Knowledge and Cod Migrations in the Northern Gulf of St. Lawrence

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Abstract

Some recent scholarship has focused on integrating local and/or traditional knowledge with conventional scientific information in fisheries management to improve the factual foundation of and strengthen support for management decisions. This article compares a sequence of historical and contemporary scientific texts and maps about the migrations and stock structure of cod in the Northern Gulf of St. Lawrence with texts and maps generated by the authors through the collection, aggregation and interpretation of commercial fish harvesters’ ecological knowledge. We find that the relationship between fisheries science and harvesters’ ecological knowledge is dynamic and has changed over time, and that both are ‘situated’ socially and ecologically. Overall, each paints an incomplete picture of cod movements and stock structure but the knowledge of harvesters provides a valuable complement to scientific information, particularly at the local scale, and has the potential to contribute to the identification of local cod stocks that are new to science and management. We end by considering how this case study informs the larger discussion about the challenges and potential benefits of the so-called integration project to bring together science and the ecological knowledge of fish harvesters.

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Notes

  1. Our case study draws on research conducted during the 5-year Coasts Under Stress (CUS) Research Project.

  2. Aletta Biersack (1999, p. 11), points to a growing resistance to the kinds of reductionism inherent in views of culture that are either materialist (culture as defined by nature) or idealist (culture as sui generis) and to a ‘growing insistence’ on a new kind of synthesis. In this article we argue that knowledge, like (or as) culture, is socially and ecologically mediated.

  3. Some of the terms utilized in this article are used ambiguously and in overlapping ways by fishers and scientists. For the purpose of this paper, we define the following terms this way: A stock refers to fish found at any time of the year in a particular group of sub-divisions, such as 2J3KL or 3Pn4RS. A local stock refers to fish found at any time of the year in a defined geographic area, at a spatial scale smaller than these NAFO sub-division groupings. A subpopulation refers to fish that interbreed based on a fairly equal probability of encounter per fish, due to seasonal movement of those fish to a location where spawning occurs. A population refers to fish capable of interbreeding through some probability of encounter well below that in a subpopulation, due to geographic or temporal isolation of breeding activity. A stock component is a convenient term that recognizes that a stock defined by geographic boundaries (e.g. NAFO sub-divisions) will be composed of populations or subpopulations that generally do not interbreed. Finally the Northern Gulf stock and Northern Cod refer to fish of a single species (Gadus morhua) located in specified but different groups of NAFO sub-divisions (3Pn4RS and 2J3KL respectively) and consisting of several populations, all capable of producing reproductively capable offspring, and all of which are reproductively isolated (do not breed) from other similarly defined species (e.g. Gadus ogac).

  4. This quota is divided into a number of categories based on vessel size, gear type and provenance. Quota is also assigned at different periods during the year (July, September and October) and allocated by area. See http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/communic/statistics/commercial/quota_reports/2007/cod_e.htm for more detail.

  5. Given the context of substantial overfishing of the Northern Gulf stocks and related changes in abundance and age-class structure of these cod stocks we draw to a limited extent on the scientific research suggesting migratory behaviour is age and density dependent (Thompson 1943; Templeman 1979; Sinclair et al. 1991; Lawson and Rose 2000; Rose and Kulka 1999). We do not, however, explore changes in tagging technologies over time as a process mediated by social (technological development and research) and ecological factors (retention rate linked to fish behaviour/biology). Nor do we explore in any depth the social and ecological factors mediating tag returns in mark-recapture studies, (Cadigan and Brattey 2006).

  6. Our limited sample of relevant scientific publications is also partly driven by space constraints. Robichaud and Rose (2004) state that there are more than 500 scientific publications involving tagging data that describe the movement of cod in the North Atlantic (though only a fraction of these would pertain specifically to our study area).

  7. In a separate, much larger scale study, Robichaud and Rose (2004) reviewed results from a century of tagging experiments on 174 Atlantic cod groups. Based on this review, they identified four migratory behaviours, classifying 41% of cod tag returns as indicating “sedentary” behaviour; 18% as “accurate homer” behaviour; 20% as “inaccurate homer” behaviour; and 20% as indicating “disperser” behaviour, i.e., movements that cover large areas without recognizable return movements. Their results also indicated that coastal cod (in contrast to offshore cod) are particularly likely to be sedentary, and that sedentary cod stocks tend to be associated with lower levels of historical maximum biomass.

  8. In this case the authors use ‘access’ in the sense that these harvesters would be able to access (harvest) these fish near their own home ports.

  9. Of course, this does not include the many paper and digital charts that fish harvesters routinely use in the course of fishing. While not utilized in our study, we suggest that these represent an area of potential research.

  10. Copies of the audio cassettes and the original maps (where authorized by the respondents and with identifying information removed) were deposited in the Folklore Archive at Memorial University as both a record and as a potential resource for future researchers.

  11. We acknowledge that this process of summarizing was somewhat qualitative and subjective. Given the nature of our semistructured approach, and the complexity of movements described, we felt it was not appropriate to impose quantitative parameters on our decision-making regarding the form of our summary.

  12. Blackberry is a parasitic organism (Lernaeocera branchialis) that attaches and then develops under the gills of cod. Blackberry imparts a strong, characteristic odor to the fish.

  13. For example, genetics can tell us about stock structure in the past, as can morphometrics (to a lesser degree). These are long-term measures that result from interbreeding or breeding isolation. However, while such information can tell us that in the past populations were isolated, cannot tell us whether this is true in the present. In contrast, tagging studies can tell us about near term intermixing, but cannot tell us whether individuals that intermix interbreed. The evolution of tagging studies towards the use of tags that can record fish movements (depth and temperature) between release and recapture is adding to our knowledge of fish behaviour and movements. The use of data-logging tags still requires the recapture of the tagged fish. Acoustic tags are more costly than data-logging tags and have a more limited life span but they allow scientists to track the movements of tagged fish in real time and without recapture, so long as the acoustic mechanism continues to function and they remain in areas where the signal can be picked up.

  14. The second principal objective was ‘conservation and sustainable use’.

  15. These trends are not unique to Canada. Symes (2007), for example, has considered fisheries management and institutional reform from the European perspective, and explores the need for coherence across different scales of governance, but points out that while comanagement and participative governance (to which FEK and FEK* are closely related) are regarded as important developments, it is unclear whether they will be able to deliver better management and more sustainable fisheries.

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Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) who have provided the major funds for the “Coasts Under Stress” Project through the SSHRC Major Collaborative Research Initiatives (MCRI) program. Funding also provided by the host universities: Memorial University of Newfoundland and the University of Victoria. We would also like to thank the 88 fish harvesters who participated in our interviews, as well as the additional fish harvesters who contributed to the refinement of our data through their input in feedback workshops.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Coastal Research, Malaspina University–College, Nanaimo, British Columbia, V9R 5S5, Canada

    Grant Murray

  2. Department of Sociology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Newfoundland, A1C 5L7, Canada

    Barbara Neis

  3. Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri–Columbia, 107 Swallow Hall, Columbia, MO, 65211 1440, USA

    Craig T. Palmer

  4. Ocean Sciences Centre, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NF, A1C 5L7, Canada

    David C. Schneider

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  1. Grant Murray
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Correspondence to Grant Murray.

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Murray, G., Neis, B., Palmer, C.T. et al. Mapping Cod: Fisheries Science, Fish Harvesters’ Ecological Knowledge and Cod Migrations in the Northern Gulf of St. Lawrence. Hum Ecol 36, 581–598 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-008-9178-1

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