What is happening in Mi’kma’ki -- to Mi’kmaw fishers, vessels & equipment, & to the harvested lobsters -- is abhorrent. The Feds, DFO & law enforcement must step up to the plate; letting violence go on communicates tacit support for it and those who perpetrate.
I am a non-Indigenous academic who studies fisheries management in Canada. I thank Indigenous colleagues, elders, leaders and so many others for their words and teachings in person, in writing, over zoom calls and on Twitter. Miigwech! Klecko! Hawa’a!
I have been grappling with what (if anything!) I can meaningfully add to the discussion at this time. Here is where I’ve landed: oceans, fish and fisheries off of all three coasts in this country are managed through a highly specific system.
This system seeks to conserve and generate wealth, but the way that it does so privileges a small handful of firms and individuals.
Settlers have sought after fish for export since arrival – some of the earliest and largest stock declines happened as massive harvests were made in the early-mid 1900s. But, the system I’m talking about in this thread began wholeheartedly in the 1960s.
In fishery after fishery, the number of licenses available have been capped and reduced over time; in most instances, it became permissible to buy and sell licenses.
In other words, the privilege to participate in commercial fishing is itself now a commodity that can be traded in the marketplace. Likewise, portions of ‘total allowable catch’ in some fisheries are also divvied up and can be freely bought and sold.
To varying degrees, there have been efforts to limit how many licenses and how much quota big fish processing firms and other well-financed fishing companies could hold.
Today, however, it is undeniable that big companies -- notably, but not solely, Clearwater on the East Coast and Canfisco on the West Coast -- benefit disproportionately from fisheries. This is in no small part to do with their sizeable license and quota holdings.
In seeking to tackle ‘fisheries reconciliation’, then, the Feds & DFO are actually faced with the question of how it is possible to transfer some licenses & quota -- now valuable commodities -- away from ‘owners’ & to Indigenous communities with inherent & recognized rights.
In sum, this is a mess that began when settlers decided fisheries were theirs to claim. However, the mess has gotten deeper & infinitely more entrenched as a result of turning the privilege of commercial fishing into a commodity.
I’m not sure whether the system can just be dumped, but I am pretty sure that reconciliation -- and the regeneration of wealth/well-being in coastal communities -- will not be possible without greater attention to how the system works (& recognition of who benefits from it most).
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