A recent study suggests the historical decrease in salmon populations in Metro Vancouver waters from infrastructure developments is impacting səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation) fishing and cultural practices.
Using archaeological data, Indigenous oral histories and traditional use studies, researchers documented salmon populations like sockeye and chum from pre-colonization times to the mid-20th century.
Researchers found since the 1860s, salmon in water bodies like the Fraser River and rivers and streams draining into Burrard Inlet have decreased 85 and 99 per cent, respectively, compared to pre-contact levels.
“It’s just a huge reduction in simply the amount of fish that were out there,” said co-author Jesse Morin, adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia’s Oceans and Fisheries Institute. “And all those other things in the food chain that rely on the fish as well too.”
The Historical Ecology, the Loss of Salmonids, and the Transformation of Coast Salish Culture published in March in the BC Studies journal is a follow-up to his 2023 study tracking the decrease in ocean forage fish between 1885 and 1920.
In the newly published study, researchers found the sharp decline in fish was from regional urbanization and industrialization leading to commercial fisheries, habitat loss and pollution. They used the salmon data to understand how fish loss impacts Tsleil-Waututh Nation's food and cultural practices.
Traditional foods like salmon are a must for most Tsleil-Waututh Nation social events, especially ones that include guests from other First Nation communities, the study said.
Michelle George, cultural and technical specialist for the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, said there are a lot of cultural practices tied with harvesting salmon.
Prior to current fishing tools, Tsleil-Waututh Nation people would make rope by hand to catch fish, George said.
“So the prep time would be teaching or sharing culturally the things that we’d use or the way that’d we make it,” she said.
Sockeye is considered a staple but is hard to come by. The study found Tsleil-Waututh Nation members annually get between zero to 12 sockeye fish per person, as disbursement ranges from 7,200 in good years to zero in poor years.
George and her family have seen salmon declining for decades. She remembers conversations with her family talking about being able to live off the food from Burrard Inlet and the surrounding waterways, at times catching five-feet long salmon.
But George holds a difference experience, with most fisheries shut down or not accessible in her lifetime.
To get Sockeye salmon coming from the Fraser River, it would be through family connections from other First Nations, but even that has been declining since she’s been alive, with less access to fish, she said.
“It’s not just a loss of food, this is a real important connection for Tsleil-Waututh people … these resources,” Morin said.
However, there is a path of optimism, as George has seen herring spawn back in Burrard Inlet over the last five years.
The Tsleil-Waututh Nation have been working on restoration and enhancement projects to enhance fish and sea creature populations over the years, including a four-year project on Burrard Inlet removing wood debris from foreshores, and more work on the horizon with recent federal funding to restore their shoreline.
The restoration work is paying off. The study found after extensive habitat restoration work, chum salmon have been returning to the Indian River in recent years, a tributary that flows into Indian Arm.
“If we look at the success stories in Tsleil-Waututh territory, certainty one of them is chum salmon,” Morin said. “I think that might be one of the takeaways that if we want local fish, that’s the local fish that’s sustainable.”
George said it might be a long shot, but she's hoping to see a strong return of the salmon in her lifetime.
“That’s why we do restoration and other enhancement projects, and I’m hoping that fisheries will make a comeback by the efforts that First Nations and others are doing.”
Abby Luciano is the Indigenous and civic affairs reporter for the North Shore News. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
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