Bridging the divide in BC, Alaska salmon fisheries: A modernized approach

Ongoing disputes over salmon in BC and Alaska fisheries highlight a pressing need for reform in fisheries assessments, management, conservation, and collaboration. These conflicts reveal deep-seated issues related to the slow pace of assessments, lack of transparency, and erosion of trust. These challenges are not confined to the Pacific Northwest; they are global in nature and underscore the urgent need for new approaches.

The current debate: A critical need for modernized assessments

The controversy over salmon in the Pacific Northwest reveals a systemic challenge: fisheries are assessed and managed using outdated methods that are siloed, opaque, and slow, resulting in mistrust and ineffective outcomes.

In this case, the MSC, steadfast in its certification process, faces criticism from groups like Raincoast Conservation Foundation, Watershed Watch, Skeena Wild, and Ocean Wise. These organizations argue that MSC's Conformity Assessment Body has inadequately considered scientific evidence, including critical bycatch impacts, stock interceptions, and the fishery's effects on endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW).

These disputes highlight the reliance on conventional assessment methods that are still done manually, by experts behind closed doors, with results often being released a year or more out of date. These processes fail to keep up with the dynamic nature of fish populations, fisheries, and the broader marine ecosystem. Delays enable misinformation, disinformation, and suspicion to grow. 

The importance of real-time, transparency, trust

A core issue in this debate is the lack of timely, transparent strategies that enable discussion, conversations, and diverse perspectives throughout the data collection, analysis and assessment phases. Transparency is crucial for building trust among stakeholders, rightsholders, and decision-makers.

Achieving this requires seamless, ethical data sharing, analysis, and reports that integrate diverse information sources, such as input from fishers, researchers, other stakeholders, and community members. This approach breaks down information silos, captures local and regional dynamics, and ensures insights are generated in a timely, transparent manner. 

This transparency with automated processes prevents selective data usage and interpretation — and perceived biases in data collection or analysis —  fostering trust and enabling stakeholders to independently verify results.

To sustain trust, real-time assessments that empower stakeholders and rightsholders to co-interpret results and trends are crucial. This approach helps prevent fears that data might be selectively used or interpreted to favor one party over another. By fostering a foundation of trust and cooperation, stakeholders can independently verify data, making certification and recommendation processes more robust and credible, ultimately bridging gaps between conflicting interests.

Enhancing collaborative management

The dynamic nature of marine ecosystems, especially with rapidly changing oceans and diminished fish populations, demands flexible management approaches. Real-time data with seamless analysis and reports can facilitate more responsive and collaborative management strategies. Integrating data from various sources can provide a holistic view of fish populations, ecosystem health, fisheries, and even include other interacting species or sectors, such as whales from whale watching. 

This information is crucial for making timely and informed decisions at local and regional scales. For instance, if there is a sudden decline in salmon stocks, managers can quickly implement measures such as adjusting catch limits or temporary area closures, thus preventing overfishing and promoting recovery. Or, if there are whales nearby, a fishery can quickly adapt to move their gear and avoid costly, and sometimes lethal, interactions. 

Empowering Indigenous Knowledge

First Nations communities possess invaluable, deeply nuanced traditional knowledge and have an intrinsic commitment to the recovery and sustainability of fisheries as an interwoven thread of the ecosystem. Their observations, insights, and knowledge can not only guide management decisions but also act as a beacon for systemic change, fostering holistic approaches to long-term fisheries success. By blending traditional knowledge with fisheries-dependent and fisheries-independent data from various sectors, more comprehensive management and conservation practices can be developed and implemented.

Mitigating bycatch and protecting Endangered Species

Bycatch—the accidental capture of non-target species while fishing—is a significant global concern. Monitoring catch and bycatch rates provides critical insights into fish populations and fishing practices, which are essential for implementing adaptive fisheries management measures. Using high-resolution data with real-time analysis can support actions such as initiating voluntary move protocols to move fishers away from high bycatch areas, temporary fishing area closures, or strategically deploying bycatch reduction technologies. These proactive measures are crucial for protecting endangered species and ensuring the long-term productivity of fisheries, and need timely data and analysis to be effective. 

Driving Adaptive Management

Adaptive management requires continuous feedback on the effectiveness of implemented measures. Real-time data and analysis can immediately measure and track the impact of new regulations, allowing for prompt adjustments if needed. This adaptability ensures that management practices remain effective and responsive to environmental changes. Timeliness and transparency of adaptive management decisions is essential for raising awareness and gaining buy-in, awareness, and acceptance of these decisions. 

eOceans: seamless, ethical data-to-dissemination

Given these challenges, eOceans' offers a novel solution by enabling continuous data collection with seamless analysis, reports, and dissemination. This technology provides an up-to-date, transparent view of the fisheries, accessible to all stakeholders—such as MSC, Ocean Wise, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), First Nations communities, and other interested parties, such as buyers and consumers. There is also transparency around the data that are excluded from an analysis to prevent the notion that data are selected to represent certain conditions. There is a “Co-interpretation” feature that allows stakeholders, rightsholders, and decision makers to discuss the trends as they see them — this is private. By ensuring that everyone operates from the same dataset and analyses, that include spatial and temporal trends in catch, bycatch and other features that are queryable, eOceans reduces discrepancies and fosters a shared understanding of the status of a fishery. Also, to protect special places, species, and privacy, eOceans hides the exact location, wiggling the data points. 

By fostering ethical collaboration among stakeholders, rightsholders, and decision makers, eOceans can help reconcile differences and pave the way for more sustainable or restorative and equitable fisheries management. This approach may address current disputes but also builds a resilient framework for future fisheries governance.

Get started today!

Don’t wait—get your fishery up and running on eOceans today to track and manage your essential resources in a timely, transparent, accountable way. Join our global community using eOceans on on (iOS, Android) or desktop. Use the app to easily log data, streamline operations, and make smarter decisions for thriving futures.

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