An intersection between oral history and science: traditional ecological knowledge and marine conser
Chatting with locals during my first trip to Newfoundland I immediately noticed that people were discussing capelin and other marine ecology events as if they were discussing the weather. Coastal Newfoundland communities are attuned to the local marine environment on which they rely for food and livelihood, so it follows that the whole community discusses and remembers the timing of significant annual ecological events such as whales arriving or capelin spawning. Almost every local that I spoke to told me that capelin used to spawn on the beaches in June, remembering that the spawning usually corresponded to a significant annual event such as the beginning of warm summer weather or writing finals at school. I was amazed to be able to tap into this vast multi-generational oral history of the local ecology.
Newfoundland fishers' Traditional Local Knowledge (TEK) has been somewhat incorporated into Newfoundland and Labrador fisheries management since the cod fisheries collapse in 1992. For example, in 1993 the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council was created and introduced open public meetings that gather information from fishery stakeholders and deliver public recommendations to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans on issues (Murray et al. 2005). Another example of applying local knowledge is the advent of Ecapelin (http://ecapelin.ca), a website created by the St. Lawrence Global Observatory in partnership with World Wildlife Fund-Canada. This citizen science project allows anyone to submit a photo and GPS coordinates of capelin spawning at a beach. The Ecapelin website also includes educational materials on the importance and relevance of capelin for curious citizens. In my opinion, this type of cooperation and collaboration among fishers, citizens, managers, and scientists is essential for sustainable, informed, and adaptive ecosystem-based management. Thanks to social media and smartphones, these types of collaborative information sharing are becoming faster and easier. Traditional local knowledge will continue to play a fundamental role in informing science in the area. Who would know and understand this area and its natural history better than the people who observe these ecological patterns every year and have made a living here for multiple generations?
Locals collecting capelin to salt and dry for winter during a capelin roll (beach spawn), August 6th, 2017. Mussel Shells Beach, Lumsden, Newfoundland.
References
Murray G, Bavington D, Neis B. 2005. Chapter 16: Local ecological knowledge, science, participation and fisheries governance in Newfoundland and Labrador: A complex, contested and changing relationship. Pages 269–290 in Participation in Fisheries Governance. Springer Science & Business Media, Berlin, Germany.
