Abstract
Humans are adversely affected by the loss of vital fishery resources, specifically Indigenous peoples and the traditional knowledge systems that are foundationally tied to their culture. Discounting the ability and knowledge of Indigenous peoples stems from concepts rooted in “Tragedy of the Commons” in which a shared resource, in this case fisheries, if left unchecked will be destroyed by the mismanagement of users. The Alaskan fisheries policy regime is recognized as one of the best managed and influential fisheries in the world, but the state is predominantly driven by a conservation approach that discounts other knowledge systems. Alaskan Native fishers, for example the Gwich’in, who maintain a sustainable 30,000 year (conservatively) relationship with their environment, possess culturally specific Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) that is a result of the mechanisms or physical act of fishing, thus giving meaning to the term we will use in this paper, Indigenous Fishers’ Knowledge (IFK). Alaskan Natives along the Yukon River derive specific knowledge about their environment and King Salmon through the act of fishing. TEK is not static nor is IFK as it is transmitted to younger generations through the practice of fishing. TEK and IFK play a large role in the transmission and acquisition of knowledge, they both connect knowledge to culture and play a role in creating culture and traditions, they are in fact very intricate systems. Indigenous fishers seek inclusion and involvement that does not separate them from their knowledge but recognizes and implements their practices/control on a local level.
Highlights
The policies which regulate and manage the Alaskan king salmon fishery are recognized as some of the best and most influential in the world
This paper shows how Indigenous Fishers Knowledge (Alaska Native) of king salmon and the king salmon fishery on the Yukon River has been marginalized by the bureaucracy of state policy and regulation
We provide the fishers’ perspective of policy and regulation and their understanding of how these systems limit their ability to acquire and transmit traditional and fishers’ knowledge of the fishery
Summary
The policies which regulate and manage the Alaskan king salmon fishery are recognized as some of the best and most influential in the world. As described by Berkes et al (2000, 1256), ‘‘Both knowledge and institutions require mechanisms for cultural internalization, so that learning can be encoded and remembered by the social group.’’ In this case, fishing is the mechanism that contributes to cultural knowledge systems practiced by Alaska Native people that fish the Yukon River broadly, and in turn, these knowledge systems are reciprocal, contributing valuable information about the practice or act of fishing, making IFK both the product and contributing factor for culture and traditional knowledges These factors combined reveal the value of the ANF voice; they are part of the mechanism and cultural encoding processes and their voice will highlight where their knowledge is affected. This is the case in Alaska where the state has established a system to separate, scrutinize, and approve IFK, further pushing fishers’ knowledge into the fringes rather than establishing a way to incorporate fishers into active management roles
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