Local and Traditional Knowledge and the Historical Ecology of Pacific Herring in Alaska

• Main Authors: Thornton, Thomas F., Moss, Madonna L., Butler, Virginia L., Hebert, Jamie, Funk, Fritz
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: PDXScholar 2010
• Subjects: Pacific herring; Fishery management; Fishes > Ecology; Marine resources conservation; Anthropology; Environmental Sciences; Social and Cultural Anthropology; Gulf of Alaska; Pacific; tlingit; Alaska
• Online Access: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/anth_fac/13; https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&context=anth_fac

The article focuses on the historical ecology of the Pacific herring, a marine food web resource, in the Gulf of Alaska. It states the hearing conducted by the Alaska Legislature's House special committee on fisheries on the status and management of herring in Southeast Alaska during which Tlingit fisherman Clarence Jackson of Kake notes the disappearance of herring in his lifetime. Information on herring ecology based from Native and non-Native individuals from Southeast communities and archaeological site reports reveal that non-Natives in Southeast Alaska have exploited herring with the development of a herring reduction plant. It underscores the need for conservative management of herring populations, monitoring of herring spawning areas, and conducting otolith and ancient DNA studies.