An Indigenous Model of a Contested Pacific Herring Fishery in Sitka, Alaska

This paper uses GIS and spatiotemporal analysis of a historically and culturally modified marine ecosystem to evaluate Pacific herring abundance, declines, vulnerabilities, and future prospects, about which a Native Tribe and state fisheries managers disagree. In 2008, the Sitka Tribe of Alaska (STA) requested that an area within its traditional waters be closed to commercial sac roe fishing to protect spawning Pacific herring (Clupea pallasi), a key species for Native subsistence and marine ecosystem health. This proposal was opposed by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), which estimated that adequate biomass was available to accommodate all herring users' needs. The disagreement exposes divisions between the Tribe's and the State's conceptualizations of the status, health, and management priorities for fisheries and marine ecosystems. The Tribe's model is one of cultivated abundance, wherein herring eggs are harvested conservatively and habitat is enhanced to make coastal spawning areas more productive, stable, and resilient. The State's paradigm, in contrast, follows a constitutional mandate to manage fisheries for Maximum Sustained Yield (MSY). A single-species biomass model is used to estimate a “surplus” herring for commercial roe harvesting within management areas. This work analyses and compares the spatiotemporal prescriptions of State and Indigenous models of herring fisheries management as they are used within debates over a closed area (Proposal 239), and assesses their relative potential for improving herring fisheries and marine ecosystem management using a combination of GIS spatial and scientific analysis and traditional ecological knowledge.