Losing fish, losing cultures

My last post raised the issue of a resumed whale hunt by the Makah tribe, noting that it is deeply connected with who the Makah are as a people. Yesterday, I discovered an article in Canada’s Globe and Mail (delivered to the door of my hotel room here in the beautiful city of Halifax) about drastically declining spawning runs of the eulachon. This is a small species of smelt that could almost be seen as a west coast version of river herring (see the post that launched this blog for more on those fish). The eulachon runs have long formed the basis of the Nuxalk tribe’s way of life, and their demise could mean the end of their culture, or at least a radical transformation. I don’t know much about eulachon (my east coast bias shining through), but I suspect they are important prey fish for many predators, so the collapse of their stock may be having ecological ripples beyond the cultural effects on the Nuxalk.

Lost traditions due to depleted fish stocks is not a phenomenon that is unique to indigenous cultures. Commercial fisheries for river herring are among the oldest in North America. North Carolina in particular has the largest in-river fishery, one that is not just a source of income but is also a way of life for the fishermen and part of the state’s coastal heritage. That fishery is now being closed in response to the severe declines in abundance. Like the eulachon, which might be declining due to shrimp trawlers, the problem might lie offshore in the form of river herring bycatch in open ocean fisheries for Atlantic herring and Atlantic mackerel. Despite the name, river herring actually spend the majority of their lives at sea, and could be vulnerable to multiple impacts away from rivers and the coast.

Although there are many bad signs for many species of fish, I can happily report that this past spring we documented for the first time in many years a spawning run of alewife in the Swan River on Long Island. Those fish are pictured above.

Whale tales

My last post two weeks ago focused on the world’s largest land animal. Shortly after those musings on elephants, my attention turned to the world's largest animal on land or sea when I read that Japan is once again threatening to leave the International Whaling Commission (IWC). Japan does this from time to time, whenever the IWC votes for regulations it does not like. Each time, their threats turn out to be empty.

Hunting whales, like hunting seals, is seen by many people as a relic practice of an earlier age that is neither necessary today nor consistent with ‘modern’ values. For the most part, I am inclined to agree. Values are not static. They change and evolve, and what was acceptable in the past might not be acceptable now. Whaling was vital to the growth of Nantucket and New Bedford, and provided useful resources for a growing nation. But those resources were replaced by alternatives that were more abundant and accessible, and with that shift (not to mention the depletion of whale populations), the whaling industry faded away. It is noteworthy that our relatively newfound appreciation for whales and associated moral opposition to killing them came after they had declined in value. Despite the cause of this revelation, I personally feel that whales have a level of intelligence, social complexity, and overall uniqueness that warrants special status in the animal kingdom (my close encounter with a fin whale off Nantucket pictured above still gives me goose bumps).

However, I am hesitant to impose this ‘enlightened’ view on all cultures. The whaling industry had a relatively brief duration in the history of European settlers in America. But whaling has been an integral part of other cultures for much longer. The Makah tribe of Washington state have a long history as a whaling people. After a nearly 150 year lay-off from whaling (a fairly short period of time in the context of the history of the Makah), the tribe resumed the hunt in 1999 amidst substantial opposition and controversy (for more on Makah whaling historically and today, check here). I support their right to hunt to help maintain their independence, identity and tradition.

I have similar sympathies for nations like Iceland and Norway that argue for the right to hunt whales on the basis of longstanding traditions. There are indigenous whaling cultures in Japan, but the nation hurts its arguments to continue whaling for cultural reasons by its continued claim of the need to continue large-scale whaling operations for scientific reasons. This is a very, very, very thinly veiled commercial hunt of 1,000 or more whales annually. A bowhead whale caught off Alaska recently had the remnants of old whaling gear lodged in its neck that placed its age at between 115 and 130 years. This mind-boggling longevity is exactly why anything more than a limited hunt for cultural reasons is unsustainable. A species living a century or more cannot support industrial harvest at the level Japan would like to hunt.