Cooperative Fisheries Management Involving First Nations in British Columbia: An Adaptive Approach to Strategy Design

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• Main Authors: McDaniels, Timothy L., Healey, Michael, Paisley, Richard Kyle
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1994
• Subjects: Aquatic Science; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Sockeye; Fraser River; First Nations
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/f94-213; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/f94-213

In 1991, a substantial program of cooperative salmon fishery management involving First Nations was initiated in British Columbia. This paper considers how ongoing cooperative management initiatives in this fishery could be designed and implemented. The process discussed in the paper could be viewed as an adaptive management experiment in institutional design for cooperative management. First, sets of fundamental objectives for cooperative management and strategies for achieving these objectives are developed. The methods for structuring objectives and developing strategies are drawn from decision analysis practice. Then the actual experience in implementing a version of one of the strategies during the 1992 Fraser River sockeye salmon First Nations fishery is discussed. The highly publicized and controversial events of the 1992 season are instructive about how cooperative management should be implemented in other contexts.