Community Fisheries Management Handbook - Saint Mary's University

Economic development
Managing Conflict
Collaboration and Building Supportive Institutions
Influencing Policy
UNIQUE CONTEXT: FIRST NATIONS FISHERIES
This discussion focuses on the particularities of First Nations communities
in Atlantic Canada that are becoming increasingly involved in the commercial
fisheries of the region, since a Supreme Court of Canada decision
in 1999. That “Marshall Decision” recognized the traditional involvement
of First Nations in the fishery, and indeed their strong historical reliance on
marine and coastal resources. In recent times, however, Atlantic Canadian
First Nations had very little access to the commercial fishery – and have
been without gear, boats, training and facilities. They are only now re-entering
the modern commercial fishery with newly-recognized collective
access rights, following the “Marshall Decision”. Yet while First Nations
are new entrants in the regulated fishery, they bring with them a tradition
in which community-based fisheries management fits well with aboriginal
approaches to governance and communal decision making.
There are a variety of perspectives within First Nations about how their
communities should participate in commercial fisheries. As a result, a wide
spectrum of approaches have evolved, ranging from Bands that choose
to focus exclusively on small-scale inshore fisheries, to corporate fishery
models where the fishery is managed very much like any other Canadian
offshore fleet. There are also a variety of ways in which federal fisheries
staff are involved in First Nations fisheries, with some communities receiving
technical and financial information from DFO, while others remain
more autonomous, and still others partner with DFO while still maintaining
ultimate decision-making authority.
Of major significance in any First Nation fisheries model is the fact that
when First Nations enter the commercial fishery, it is through communal
fishing licenses they hold when their communities sign fisheries agreements
with the Federal government. Communal licenses, whether issued
for the ‘food fishery’ or the commercial fishery, are not provided to individual
fishers, but rather to the Band, which then has to decide who fishes and
how benefits are distributed. Communal licenses force the band to manage
for the community, to consider the interests of those who are fishing as
well as other members of the community, and to consider how benefits are
distributed. This requirement leads to a deeper consideration of questions
of equity and fairness.
TRENDS IN “OWNER-OPERATOR” FISHERIES
In contrast, to the First Nations fisheries described above, others in the
Atlantic Region’s commercial fisheries are not operating under communal
licenses, but rather as individual license holders. Historically, most of these
license holders are in ‘owner-operator’ fleets – ones in which each fishing
enterprise is owned and operated by an individual fish harvester. Many
studies show that the owner-operator fleets are the economic, social, and
cultural backbone and lifeline of coastal communities in the region. The
benefits from the money spent running the owner-operator enterprises
enable local businesses within coastal communities to thrive, and crew
members of owner-operator fleets have stable jobs and moderate incomes,
which bring further benefits to their communities.
Most such fisheries are managed through partnership or fishery management
agreements between DFO and species-specific or gear-type-based
harvesting groups. Typically, the latter organizations, representing owneroperator
fleets, consult with their members to develop sustainable management
plans. Working together, owner-operator fishery groups across
Canada are trying to protect and to maintain an inshore fishery for the
future of their communities.
The owner-operator fleets are threatened by a trend in many of the inshore
fisheries, where a few larger companies stockpile licenses until they
control a specific fleet. These corporate-owned fleets may harvest more
intensively than the inshore fleets and may operate under an Individual
Transferable Quota (ITQ) management system which consolidates vessels
and jobs. Furthermore, crew on these vessels most often have low
incomes and unstable jobs. There are also concerns that fishing practices
by these fleets can be detrimental to fish habitat, spawning grounds, and
health and safety.
PA RT O N E
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