Bringing local knowledge into focus
A report of the Centre for Community-Based Management
Book by: Jennifer Graham, Stephen Engle, and Maria Recchia
This book documents Canadian fishermen’s knowledge of local groundfish stocks in the Bay of Fundy, taking a large number of interviews and distilling them down to a series of maps showing where and when fishermen have caught spawning cod and haddock. This information, stored in the heads of hundreds of widely scattered fishermen, and developed only through years of being on the water, is proving to be of significant importance in developing new alternatives to the standard scientific fishery management plans for these stocks, which for the most part have resulted in historically low, depleted fish population levels.
In essence, the report indicates that the loss of the inshore fisheries is associated with the depletion of once abundant, distinct, inshore spawning populations. This progressive depletion is likely attributed to overfishing, diminished forage fish availability, habitat destruction and pollution. While there is scientific knowledge from trawl surveys and hydro-acoustic sampling, it is not enough to understand the fine-scale population dynamics of the stocks, and to chart a path to recovery. This seemingly simple collection of the knowledge of fishermen in fact reveals a complex ecological picture, made up of many local spawning areas and groups. It validates and documents the lifetime knowledge of fishermen, paving the way for such information to play a larger role in the management process.
Efforts are underway on the American side to provide similar groundfish information as well, with a Gulf of Maine-wide cod-tagging project just getting underway (see story elsewhere in this issue). Furthermore, a number of years ago fisherman Ted Ames of Stonington, using much the same historical/interview format used for the Canadian publication, investigated historical groundfish spawning along the Maine coast. Ames’s work also emphasized the importance of local, often inshore stocks in maintaining the overall health and abundance of the cod and haddock populations.
Considering the record of the standard management plans so far, with the cod stock in the Gulf of Maine at best holding steady at around only one-third the level it should be for maximum catch, the time has come to accept and solicit further industry-based knowledge into the management process. This book goes a long way toward doing that for the Bay of Fundy, and toward making such collaborative research valid and acceptable for other areas.
Copies of Local knowledge and local stocks: An atlas of groundfish spawning in the Bay of Fundy can be obtained from the St. Francis Xavier University Bookstore (902) 867-2450, or email