Reconstruction of marine fisheries catches for key countries and regions (1950 - 2005)

Canada’s arctic marine fisheries occur within FAO statistical areas 18 and 21. Although many of the communities in these areas rely on the sea, only commercial data have been part of the formal reporting procedure. Small-scale fisheries data, including subsistence fisheries, have not been formerly assessed, nor do they form part of the national and global reports. Here, we present reported and estimated catch data for the period 1950 to 2001 for the commercial and small-scale sectors, including catches that were formerly used for feeding sled-dog teams. During this period, it is estimated that small-scale marine fisheries were 27 times larger than the reported commercial catches suggest, and small-scale catches declined by 56 % overall. Excluding the sled-dog food component, the small-scale catches destined for human consumption increased from approximately 523 tonnes in 1950 to an average of nearly 1,200 tonnes in the 1970s, but declined to approximately 900 tonnes by the early 2000s. Arctic marine fisheries catches for the small-scale sector in terms of population (kg·person-1·year-1) reached an estimated peak of 268 kg in 1960 and were found to be 20.5 kg at the end of the study period. INTRODUCTION Canada’s arctic fisheries occur within FAO statistical areas 18 and 21 (Figure 1). Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is Canada’s federal agency responsible for fishery statistics, and it reports catch data for Canada, including the Central and Arctic region. The Central and Arctic region includes the coastal waters of the Yukon, the marine and inland waters of Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Ontario and the prairie provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, while Quebec is its own separate region (DFO, 2006). However, existing reports allow for the estimation of the marine fish component of catches from arctic waters to be separated from the inland freshwater catches. The present study reports on marine fish catches taken by communities that fish the arctic waters of Canada (commercial and small-scale) for the period 1950-2001. One purpose of the study is to provide an estimate of marine fish catches to serve as a scientific baseline in the face of global warming, while both data and trends may also be of assistance in community and intercommunity development strategies. Although several studies and reports have been published previously, there has been no comprehensive review of potential historical catches, combining both small-scale catches with reported commercial catches, and there has been no expansion to cover the entire Canadian arctic. Productivity in the marine waters of northern Canada is limited by low nutrient availability in the upper water layer caused by vertical stability, a lack of upwelling and the freeze/thaw cycle which dilutes available nutrients. In Hudson Bay, vertical stability is amplified by the large amount of freshwater inputs from various river sources. It is for these reasons that the commercial fishery potential has traditionally been considered to be low (Dunbar, 1970). The Arctic Ocean region of Canada is characterized by small coastal communities with an extremely limited tax base and a high degree of dependence upon marine resources including mammals, as well as fish. The population is spread over a vast, often frozen coastline based in communities that are generally less developed than most others in Canada. Although the significance of subsistence fisheries has been recognized (Berkes 1990), this area has previously received little attention as a fishing culture, due in part to the small population and limited government services. The present study focuses on the marine fish catches of 56 northern communities (Appendix Table A1), which are thought to account for nearly the 1 Cite as: Booth, S. and Watts, P.2007. Canada’s arctic marine fish catches. p. 3-15. In: Zeller, D. and Pauly, D. (eds.) Reconstruction of marine fisheries catches for key countries and regions (1950-2005). Fisheries Centre Research Reports 15(2). Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia [ISSN 1198-6727]. Canada’s arctic marine fish catches, Booth & Watts 4 entire human population in coastal arctic Canada. These communities are largely populated by Inuit, although some located on Hudson’s Bay coast have large numbers of Algonkian, Athapaskan and Métis, as well as non-indigenous peoples. Most of these communities fall within FAO statistical area 18, but some on the east side of Baffin Island fall within FAO area 21 (Figure 1). The communities are linked by factors that include: cultural heritage, transportation routes, jurisdiction as well as ecological parameters thus providing opportunities for intercommunity coastal resource management, research and development. However, the distances involved and the cultural and jurisdictional diversity make strategic planning difficult. Over the time period considered here, there has been a large change in the economics and infrastructure of these communities. Before the early 1950s, most Inuit were not living as much in fixed communities, but during the mid-1950s government based communities were established and the people adopted a less nomadic lifestyle. Dog-sled teams, the traditional mode of transportation, were replaced by the snowmobile starting in the early 1960s (Usher, 1972; 2002) and the subsistence economy, although still important, has become blended with a government, and market-based infrastructure. During the 1970s and 1980s there was an increasing tendency towards southern foods (Collings et al., 1998) in part based upon the perception that many of the traditional foods were contaminated with toxins (Jensen et al., 1997). There has also been a larger than 5-fold increase in the indigenous population of these communities, with an estimated growth from about 8,000 in 1950 to almost 44,000 in 2001. MATERIALS AND METHODS Estimates of commercial marine fish catches in round weight were taken from reports prepared by DFO, while small-scale catches were based on several reports detailing, by species, the number of fish taken. Numbers by taxon were converted to round weight as described below (see ‘Small-scale fisheries data’). Since the small-scale reports did not cover the entire time period under consideration, catch data were transformed into per capita catch rates (by community) and combined with human population data to form the basis of the estimates for years when ‘hard’ data were not available. This method of interpolation Northwest Territories