Addressing a complex resource conflict: humans, sea otters, and shellfish in Southeast Alaska

• Main Author: Ibarra, Sonia Natalie
• Other Authors: Eckert, Ginny L., Monteith, Daniel, Pyare, Sanjay, Langdon, Stephen J., VanBlaricom, Glenn
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Biology; Southeast Alaska; Shellfish as food; Shellfish gathering; Shellfish populations; Predation; Shellfish; Habitat; Sea otter; Animal communities; Ethnobiology; Ethnoecology; Traditional ecological knowledge; Ethnoscience; Subsistence economy; Subsistence fishing; Doctor of Philosophy in Fisheries; Fairbanks; haida; tlingit; Alaska
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11122/12552

Dissertation (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2021 Complex resource conflicts may benefit from the inclusion of social-ecological systems approaches that recognize the complex linkages between humans and their environment. Competition for shared shellfish resources by sea otters and humans in Southeast Alaska has caused food security concerns, cultural and economic losses, and uncertainty about the future of various fisheries, including rural subsistence-based fisheries. In rural Alaska Native communities, access to subsistence resources are critical to maintaining a way of life, with deeply rooted knowledge systems that are tied to the land, water, and natural resources. This dissertation documents Indigenous and local knowledge of Alaska Native customary and traditional food experts, sea otter hunters, and elders (hereafter harvest experts) to understand empirical observation and interpretations of restoring balance with sea otters. This work took place within the traditional territories of the Tlingit and Haida people of Southeast Alaska in four rural communities, Kake, Klawock, Craig, and Hydaburg. With Tribal leaders and harvest experts, my collaborators and I used a participatory framework that became a formal partnership to co-develop study goals, objectives, and methodology. Through a multiple evidence-based approach, I co-conducted semidirected and site visit interviews, structured questionnaires, mapping exercises, and participant observation in all four communities, and intertidal bivalve (shellfish) surveys in Hydaburg and Kake. Qualitative and quantitative approaches revealed local and Indigenous knowledge about sea otters caused changes to subsistence shellfish resources and harvesting patterns that included declines in availability and spatial extent of shellfish harvests, and shifts in shellfish harvest hotspots. Community adaptive strategies to observed shellfish declines include shifting harvest locations away from sea otter presence. Community management recommendations about ...