Abstract
This article explores the roots and paths of changing discourses about the natural environment and marine resources in the seascape of Kihnu, Estonia. The ontology of the seascape is never static, being subjected to constant transformation, as local experiences and understandings collide with external influences, regulations and constraints. By focusing on the indeterminacies of agency, and human encounters and environmental events, I show how Soviet pasts and perceptions, shifting scientific paradigms and practices, the dynamics of local-global articulations, and unforeseen transformation in the marine environment have progressively contributed to new understandings of the seascape, seals and other marine resources. These changing perceptions fundamentally challenge previously-held notions that humans and nature belong together. A traditional seal hunt had endured in the Baltic Sea for centuries, but the decline of the seal population in the 1970s was widely understood as anthropogenic, related to overfishing, large scale seal hunts and pollution. While most Baltic Sea coastal waters have remained closed to any type of seal hunting for more than 40 years, many fishers and marine scientists agree that grey seal population has recovered and some Baltic Sea countries have lifted the ban on hunting grey seal. While the seal hunt and meat used to have great cultural importance, there was also commercial value in seal skin and fat for many coastal communities. Several representatives of fishery-dependent coastal communities in Estonia now publicly express a view that seals now compete with fishers. Consequently the seal has lost its cultural importance and is considered as an intruder to Kihnu cultural space. I argue that making sense of the concerns and uncertainties that presently surround the question of knowing about and managing marine ecosystems, requires paying close attention to the ways in which access to the seascape and its resources have been enforced and altered over time.Key Words: Estonia; small-scale fisheries; seascape approach; ontology; local knowledge
Highlights
This article explores the roots and paths of changing discourses about the natural environment and marine resources in the seascape of Kihnu, Estonia
Scientists and managers were touring in Pärnu County, in the southwest of Estonia to present a new marine management plan for the Gulf of Riga
What is the reason for such different perceptions and why do they create conflict between different sides? what kind of role has knowledge about the environment and practice played here? How does this alter ontologies of the seascape? These are the questions that the rest of the article tries to answer
Summary
The senior marine scientist gave a presentation about the current health of the fish population, mainly focusing on Baltic Herring [Clupea harengus membras] and European Perch [Perca fluviatilis]. The difference between reality and scientifically produced knowledge about marine environment was constantly contested by fishers, who see the seascape around Kihnu Island as their 'cultural space', one the one hand. The seascape around Kihnu is a space where the islanders' perceptions of the environment, their identity and their livelihoods interact with conservation regulations and state power In this context, knowledge about the sea is constantly being recreated and transformed in a process where past events, changing environments and various groups interact and shape each other, eventually altering ontologies of nature. We show how local environmental knowledge in the Kihnu cultural space is created, transformed and transmitted through practices at sea, with individual encounters and interactions between different actors in the seascape. What is the reason for such different perceptions and why do they create conflict between different sides? what kind of role has knowledge about the environment and practice played here? How does this alter ontologies of the seascape? These are the questions that the rest of the article tries to answer
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