Aboriginal use and management of fisheries in British Columbia ...

• Main Author: Kyle, Rosanne Marie
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2009
• Subjects: First Nations
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0099055; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0099055

Both the use of and jurisdiction over fisheries resources is an important issue for many First Nations in British Columbia. Historically, fish played an important spiritual, social and economic role in numerous Aboriginal societies. These societies had various methods of managing the resource and, although they had the technological capacity to over-exploit the fisheries, they were able to maintain sustainable levels of fish. Following contact with European settlers, Aboriginal fishers were initially able to continue their traditional methods of fishing as well as expand their use of the fisheries through trade with non- Aboriginals. However, with the opening of the canneries on the coast the fisheries grew in economic importance to non-Aboriginal fishers and management of the resource was gradually but systematically taken over by the state, with various ideologies being used to justify the take-over. Aboriginal fishers lost not only their control over management of the resource, but also their ability to ...