The Ideology and Practice of Pacific Herring Cultivation among the Tlingit and Haida

Thornton, Thomas F.

doi:10.1007/s10745-015-9736-2

Cited by 25 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Although much of this work has focused on terrestrial management systems, the clam gardens documented in this study add to a growing literature documenting Ecology and Society 21(4): 20 http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol21/iss4/art20/ traditional marine management systems and the long-term effects these practices can have on species and ecosystems (e.g., CostaPierce 1987, Hunn et al 2003, Langdon 2006, Lepofsky and Caldwell 2013, Lepofsky et al 2015, Thornton 2015. Although evidence for past resource management can be somewhat elusive (Lepofsky and Lertzman 2008), many management practices do leave an imprint on the landscape, resulting in a mix of archaeological site types.…”

Section: Larval Clam Delivery and Recruitmentmentioning

confidence: 96%

Ancient clam gardens, traditional management portfolios, and the resilience of coupled human-ocean systems

Jackley¹,

Gardner²,

Djunaedi³

et al. 2016

E&S

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ABSTRACT. Indigenous communities have actively managed their environments for millennia using a diversity of resource use and conservation strategies. Clam gardens, ancient rock-walled intertidal beach terraces, represent one example of an early mariculture technology that may have been used to improve food security and confer resilience to coupled human-ocean systems. We surveyed a coastal landscape for evidence of past resource use and management to gain insight into ancient resource stewardship practices on the central coast of British Columbia, Canada. We found that clam gardens are embedded within a diverse portfolio of resource use and management strategies and were likely one component of a larger, complex resource management system. We compared clam diversity, density, recruitment, and biomass in three clam gardens and three unmodified nonwalled beaches. Evidence suggests that butter clams (Saxidomus gigantea) had 1.96 times the biomass and 2.44 times the density in clam gardens relative to unmodified beaches. This was due to a reduction in beach slope and thus an increase in the optimal tidal range where clams grow and survive best. The most pronounced differences in butter clam density between nonwalled beaches and clam gardens were found at high tidal elevations at the top of the beach. Finally, clam recruits (0.5-2 mm in length) tended to be greater in clam gardens compared to nonwalled beaches and may be attributed to the addition of shell hash by ancient people, which remains on the landscape today. As part of a broader social-ecological system, clam garden sites were among several modifications made by humans that collectively may have conferred resilience to past communities by providing reliable and diverse access to food resources.

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Section: Larval Clam Delivery and Recruitmentmentioning

confidence: 96%

Ancient clam gardens, traditional management portfolios, and the resilience of coupled human-ocean systems

Jackley¹,

Gardner²,

Djunaedi³

et al. 2016

E&S

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“…Yet it is extremely difficult to estimate herring numbers, and historical baselines for herring have been receding. Present herring stocks, even in those areas that have remained highly productive (e. g., Sitka Sound), are being managed in a depleted status (Thornton 2015;Thornton et al 2010aThornton et al , 2010bThornton and Kitka 2015). Herring of today represent a fraction of their historical abundance and distribution.…”

Section: The Decline Of Herring Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) is a cultural keystone species for many Alaska Natives, and is a critical resource in the marine food web for much of coastal Alaska (Thornton 2015;Thornton and Hebert 2014;Thornton and Kitka 2015). The appearance of herring in the spring signals the start of the seasonal round after a long winter.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The historical ecology of Pacific herring: Tracing Alaska Native use of a forage fish

Moss

Rodrigues

Speller

et al. 2016

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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Long-term use of herring by Alaska Natives is not well-documented over space or through time, yet this information can illuminate pre-industrial patterns of herring abundance and distribution. Such information is important to understand the sustained relationships Alaska Native fishers and egg collectors have had with herring. Understanding the genetics of pre-industrial herring may also inform management of the fish and fisheries to insure their survival into the future. In this paper, we attempt a contextualized account of the long-term history of Alaska Native herring fisheries, bringing together archaeological, ethnographic, and ethnohistorical data. We tie these together as background for presenting the preliminary results of the NSF-funded project, The Archaeology of Herring: Reconstructing the Past to Redeem the Future (No. 1203868). We have now tested 84 herring bone samples from 17 archaeological sites in Alaska expanding beyond Speller et al. (2012), having tripled the earlier archaeological dataset. The oldest herring bones identified archaeologically in Alaska are dated to more than 10,000 cal BP. Early Holocene and Middle Holocene sites have also yielded herring bones, although most of the record dates to the last 2400 years. Preservation of genetic information is effectively complete for the last 2400 years, but achievable back to the terminal Pleistocene (68% success rate for samples between 10,500 and 2400 cal BP). This gives considerable confidence to the potential to expand the analyses and develop a richer pattern of biological variability. The resulting data show genetic continuity between archaeological and modern herring populations. The main technical challenge for the future is to extract adequate amounts of nuclear DNA from the ancient samples for identifying more informative DNA markers that can be used to more effectively reveal any population diversity and/or population size changes over time when compared to modern herring.

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“…Halibut is one of the top two subsistence sources of food by weight in the community (Wolfe 2004, Himes-Cornell et al 2013, and herring is a cultural keystone species for Alaska Natives, prominently incorporated within various oral histories, names, songs, dances, regalia, etc. (Thornton 2015, Thornton andKitka 2015). Herring roe is particularly prized as food.…”

Section: Study Site and Species Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of social-ecological conceptual models as the basis for an integrated ecosystem assessment framework in Southeast Alaska

Rosellon-Druker¹,

Szymkowiak²,

Cunningham³

et al. 2019

E&S

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2019.Development of social-ecological conceptual models as the basis for an integrated ecosystem assessment framework in Southeast Alaska. Ecology and Society 24(3):30. https://doi.ABSTRACT. Integrated ecosystem assessment (IEA) is a framework that organizes and summarizes science to aid in the transition from a traditional single sector toward a holistic management approach known as ecosystem-based management (EBM). An essential step of the IEA framework is the development of conceptual models. These models allow the integration of intrinsically linked social, environmental, and biological components of marine ecosystems that is pivotal to address unsolved questions in fisheries management. We constructed social-ecological conceptual models of relevant commercial and subsistence fisheries for Sitka, a fisheries-based community in Southeast Alaska, by collecting and synthesizing available scientific information, local ecological knowledge (LEK), and qualitative information. We conducted focus groups with key informants in Sitka who had in-depth knowledge of their community's interactions with local fisheries and the structure and function of the surrounding ecosystem. The resulting conceptual models coproduced by scientists and Sitka stakeholders, illustrate the main biological and environmental factors driving the abundance of Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) and Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) in Southeast Alaska. Furthermore, these coproduced models elucidate how the interaction between Sitka residents and these fisheries affect community well-being. Our models will serve as the basis to assess EBM objectives for Sitka as part of an IEA place-based framework. This study also highlights the importance of integrating LEK into science and potentially into the broader Alaska fisheries management structure.

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The Ideology and Practice of Pacific Herring Cultivation among the Tlingit and Haida

Cited by 25 publications

References 19 publications

Ancient clam gardens, traditional management portfolios, and the resilience of coupled human-ocean systems

Ancient clam gardens, traditional management portfolios, and the resilience of coupled human-ocean systems

The historical ecology of Pacific herring: Tracing Alaska Native use of a forage fish

Development of social-ecological conceptual models as the basis for an integrated ecosystem assessment framework in Southeast Alaska

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