Reconciliation in action: Issue 2023-1

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• Building capacity in Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nations fisheries
• Supporting jobs and food fisheries with the ‘Namgis Nation
• Collaborating on science and stewardship with Tsleil-Waututh Nation

Building capacity in Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nations fisheries

The Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation (MMFN) are building capacity in fisheries management and monitoring through a new Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) program under the Department’s Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy. The Resource Management Officer Technician (RMOT) program provides training and funding for new technicians to help strengthen Indigenous fisheries monitoring capabilities.

MMFN traditional territories are located in the Nootka Sound area on the west coast of Vancouver Island. According to MMFN Lands and Natural Resources Manager Roger Dunlop, the 2 year funding will support the Nation in strengthening its capacity to gather good quality data to manage its fisheries. “Our department’s goal is to supply the Nation with information to sustainably manage their resources, and our staff are in the best position to do the monitoring. We know the rivers, we know the land, and many of us have been here for a lifetime.”

From the outset, the RMOT program identified a need to build core capacities and get people into jobs that position them for career development. Dunlop says the funding is critical to developing the next generation of fisheries staff for MMFN, a member of the larger Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council. “It’s been 30 years since the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council first started getting involved in Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy-funded work with DFO, so the staff turnover is starting to happen. It’s critical to be bringing on younger people, so they get some of the corporate memory before my current staff retire.”

The program offers training and career development for MMFN’s new RMOT employee Justin Blondeau. The 20-year-old Blondeau has been gaining experience in fisheries management in his community since Grade 10, through mentorship, training and participation in a local Chinook salmon monitoring program. His high school mentorship included hands-on salmon stock assessment, as well as training in marine first aid, swiftwater rescue, and more recently, archaeology and sediment and erosion control science. This experience – plus his love of the ocean – helped open the door to meaningful work with his Nation. “I’m an ocean boy. I like the scenery and not being tied to a desk. It keeps me motivated, it keeps me going.”

Dunlop sees the RMOT-supported work as “a step toward self-management of the Nations’ fisheries….and with young people like Justin in the role, other kids can see that there are jobs. They’re pretty rare in our community.”

As a new technician, Blondeau will help support a steelhead management program, test harbor seals for toxicity from industrial contaminants, conduct herring and spawn surveys and monitor the Gold River sockeye fishery for the Nation’s food and ceremonial use. He will also help manage rights-based commercial fisheries, carry out snorkel surveys for Chinook, steelhead and chum, and continue to participate in a Chinook salmon capture-recapture study that has been underway for the past 15 years.

RMOT funding supports Indigenous technicians to carry out monitoring and protection of resources both on the water and on the land where activities may negatively impact fisheries habitat. Blondeau will be involved in MMFN efforts to create “salmon parks” that will put about 17 per cent per cent of local forests off limits to heavy industrial extraction and protect about 90 per cent of local salmon production. The Nation intends to “let nature take its course” to allow salmon streams to recover. “Hishuk-ish t’sawalk –everything is connected”, Dunlop points out, and “the RMOT position will support work that is reconnecting the mountains, the rivers and the ocean with the forest. This is about trying to have healthy forests, healthy fisheries, healthy communities and a safe place to live for the future.”

To learn more about the Nation, visit the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation website and YouTube Channel. For more information on the RMOT program, contact:

Jason Knight
Regional Senior Fisheries and Aquaculture Manager
Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Pacific and Yukon Region
Email: jason.knight@dfo-mpo.gc.ca

Supporting jobs and food fisheries with the ‘Namgis Nation

It was a bitterly cold day, but a warm welcome awaited DFO staff from the ‘Namgis Nation on a November visit to Alert Bay, BC. In fall 2022, staff from DFO’s Pacific Integrated Commercial Fisheries Initiative (PICFI) toured north and central Vancouver Island to visit with, and learn from First Nations fisheries enterprises we work with. Funded by DFO, the PICFI program is designed to increase First Nations' access to commercial fisheries and supports 25 commercial fishing enterprises representing 117 First Nations in British Columbia.

The ‘Namgis visit included a tour of Mama’omas Limited Partnership, a commercial fisheries enterprise owned by the Nation and located on the doorstep to Johnstone Strait. Mama’omas means “Circle of Marine Life” and the PICFI-member enterprise lists among its goals: supporting ‘Namgis fishers to enter new fisheries, providing opportunities for community fishers to increase their incomes and skills, and supporting sustainable management of fish and marine resources.

In 2021, Mama’omas Ltd. submitted a successful business case for partial PICFI funding to purchase the seiner “Western Brave.” The vessel purchase aims to support salmon fishing and job creation for ‘Namgis members and help them realize their long-time goal of participating in the local DFO salmon test fishing program. As the Western Brave is designed for diverse types of fishing, the Nation is able to offer a range of fisheries training opportunities for harvesters, and to create jobs by expanding into new fisheries.

In 2022, the newly acquired Western Brave began work as a salmon test vessel and took part in a highly successful commercial chum fishery. During an onboard tour, Captain Manny Josefsson told PICFI staff that the vessel and crew were the “high boat” in the 2022 harvest, resulting in a large season’s catch that ensured good incomes for crew members to support their families. The vessel also supported food security for the ’Namgis, acting as a platform for both clam and prawn harvesting, as well as fishing for other community foods. The project was a success by both ‘Namgis and PICFI standards. It has helped meet the community’s fishing needs, enabled the Nations to carry out stock assessment research, and ensured meaningful jobs and sustainable incomes for local harvesters.

PICFI is co-developed, co-designed and co-delivered in collaboration with Indigenous partners. Since 2007, PICFI funding has supported more than $150 million in investments – including acquisition of licence/quotas and vessels, support for training, funding for onshore facilities and financing of aquaculture. The Initiative has distributed an annual fisheries access valued at $183 million to 20 Indigenous coastal fisheries companies. It has also generated 880 annual jobs for First Nations harvesters and land-based workers.

We look forward to seeing the expansion of the use of the Western Brave, and the opportunities this project will provide to community members.

Collaborating on science and stewardship with Tsleil-Waututh Nation

DFO is collaborating with the Tsleil-Waututh Nation (TWN) through an agreement to support science and stewardship activities in the Burrard Inlet region of British Columbia’s Lower Mainland, in the traditional territory of səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) people who have occupied these lands since time immemorial.The Burrard Inlet Environmental Science and Stewardship Agreement (BIESSA), signed on August 5, 2021, is an agreement between the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, Crown-Indigenous Relations, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Transport Canada, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

The agreement establishes a $20 million fund that is being distributed over 10 years to the Tsleil-Waututh Nation to support its work in the region. BIESSA provides stable funding for the Nation to continue its significant stewardship work in Burrard Inlet and for planning of multi-year projects. Under BIESSA, a joint Secretariat made up of the 5 signatories was established in 2021 and has been working collaboratively to springboard from, and expand upon, the extensive stewardship work TWN has been undertaking in its territory. The Secretariat works to promote relationship-building, stewardship collaborations and the restoration of the health of Burrard Inlet to support TWN priorities. As a Secretariat member, DFO has collaborated with the Nation on the following projects.

Crab larval monitoring project

In 2022, we collaborated with the TWN and the Hakai Institute on a crab larval monitoring project. A light trap was deployed at the Pacific Science Enterprise Centre in West Vancouver to monitor juvenile phases of Dungeness crabs. The coast-wide project aims to better understand the dynamics of these larval phases. This includes gathering data on spatial distribution, timing and developing a relationship between juveniles and adult crabs. The Hakai Institute is hosting the data and working to make it available to all parties. The Nation is interested in expanding this work to include more light traps in future years to better study crab larval dynamics throughout Burrard Inlet.

Watershed monitoring collaboration

We are also collaborating with TWN on a project to fill gaps in monitoring of the Indian River – a wild salmon-bearing system of great importance to TWN. With diverse rearing and spawning habitat, the system supports pink salmon in odd years, as well as runs of chum and coho. In 2022, we deployed automated data loggers and samplers across the watershed to study and monitor water temperatures, depths, atmospheric temperatures, rainfall and sediment, and to screen for select contaminants in the river. Several time-lapse cameras have been deployed in the watershed to assess water levels and to visualize water flows in order to have a better understanding of river hydrology. We are also working with TWN to co-develop studies, in addition to current TWN data collection, to better understand how these changing environmental factors are influencing salmon productivity throughout various habitats in the watershed.

To learn more, visit the Hakai Institute, Tsleil-Waututh Nation Sacred Trust or Tsleil-Waututh Nation website.