Abstract
Lake Superior is the largest and northernmost of the Great Lakes of North America. It supports a diversity of wildlife and fish species, along with commercial, recreational, and Indigenous fisheries that make vital contributions to nutrition, livelihoods, cultures, and food systems. However, this diversity of social and cultural values is not fully reflected in management practices that tend towards a ‘resourcist’ approach. This chapter seeks to ‘broaden the scope’, proposing a food systems framework as a way of grappling with the wicked problem of Lake Superior fisheries governance. Using a food systems framework, we look at the different values associated with fisheries, including the objective, subjective, and relational contributions they make to Lake Superior food systems. We explore these food-related values attached to fisheries by presenting three illustrative examples: The fisheries of Batchewana First Nation; Eat the Fish, a small business marketing local fish through alternative food networks in Northwestern Ontario; and Bodin’s Fisheries in Wisconsin, a regional fish processor and retail outlet. We conclude by identifying ways of strengthening fisheries contributions to regional food systems and offer a set of transdisciplinary questions on fishery-food system linkages that may assist others in ‘broadening the scope’ of fisheries governance.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Fisheries management responsibilities generally include fish population assessments , fish stocking, habitat restoration and design, and enforcement of harvesting regulations, including licensing (Song et al. 2017).
- 2.
- 3.
Since the recognition of Aboriginal and treaty rights in section 35(1) of the Constitution Act, 1982, the inherent right of Indigenous peoples to govern themselves has been an accepted component of Canadian constitutional law (McNeil 2007). However, there remain different views about the content, scope, and nature of this inherent right (Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada 2010; McNeil 2007).
- 4.
- 5.
References
Batchewana First Nation (2017) Notice of assertions: Sovereignty. http://batchewana.ca/about/sovereignty/. Accessed 5 Apr 2018
Batchewana First Nation (2018) Natural resources. http://batchewana.ca/departments/natural-resources. Accessed 5 Apr 2018
Bell J et al (2015) Optimising the use of nearshore fish aggregating devices for food security in the Pacific Islands. Mar Policy 56:98–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2015.02.010
Berkes F (2010) Shifting perspectives on resource management: resilience and the reconceptualization of ‘natural resources’ and ‘management.’. MAST 9(1):13–40
Blair P (1996–1997) Solemn promises and solum rights: the Saugeen Ojibway fishing grounds and R. V. Jones and Nadjiwon. Ottawa Law Rev 28:125–143
Brenden TO, Brown RW, Ebener MP et al (2013) Great Lakes commercial fisheries: historical overview and prognoses for the future. In: Taylor W, Lynch AJ, Leonard NJ (eds) Great Lakes fisheries policy and management. Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, pp 339–397
Charles A (2005) Toward sustainable and resilient fisheries: a fishery-system approach to overcoming the factors of unsustainability. http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/a0312e/A0312E13.htm. Accessed 5 Apr 2018
Dey M, Gosh K, Valmonte-Santos et al (2016) Economic impact of climate change and climate change adaptation strategies for fisheries sector in Solomon Islands: implication for food security. Mar Policy 67:171–178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2016.01.004
Feenstra G (2002) Creating space for sustainable food systems: lessons from the field. Agric Hum Values 19(2):99–106. http://www.glfc.org/research/humandimensions.pdf. Accessed 5 Apr 2018
Gaden M, Goddard C, Read J (2013) Multi-jurisdictional management of the shared Great Lakes fishery: transcending conflict and diffuse political authority. In: Taylor W, Lynch A, Leonard N (eds) Great Lakes fisheries management and policy: a bi-national perspective. Michigan State University Press, Michigan, pp 305–338
Henquinet J, Dobson T (2006) The public trust doctrine and sustainable ecosystems: a Great Lakes fisheries case study. N Y Univ Environ Law J 14(2):322–373
Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (2010) The Government of Canada’s approach to implementation of the inherent right and the negotiation of aboriginal self-government. http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100031843/1100100031844. Accessed 16 Apr 2018
Jentoft S, Chuenpagdee R (2009) Fisheries and coastal governance as a wicked problem. Mar Policy 33:553–560. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2008.12.002
Johnson D, Acott T, Stacey N, Urquhart J (eds) (2018) Social well-being and the values of small-scale fisheries. Springer, Cham
Krantzberg G, Manno JP (2010) Renovation and innovation: it’s time for the Great Lakes regime to respond. Water Resour Manag 24:4273–4285. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-010-9658-0
Langston N (2017) Sustainable Lake superior: an extraordinary lake in a changing world. Yale University Press, New Haven
Levkoe CZ, Lowitt K, Nelson C (2017) “Fish as food”: exploring a food sovereignty approach to small-scale fisheries. Mar Policy 85:65–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2017.08.018
Loring PA, Gerlach SC, Harrison H (2013) Seafood as local food: food security and locally caught seafood on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. J Agric Food Syst Community Dev 3(3):13–30. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2013.033.006
Loring PA, Harrison HL, Gerlach SC (2014) Local perceptions of the sustainability of Alaska’s Cook Inlet salmon fisheries. Soc Nat Resour 27(2):185–199
Lowitt K (2013) Examining fisheries contributions to community food security: findings from a household seafood consumption survey on the west coast of Newfoundland. J Hunger Environ Nutr 8(2):221–241. https://doi.org/10.1080/19320248.2013.786668
Lowitt K, Johnston-Weiser D, Lauzon R et al (2018) On food security and access to fish in the Saugeen Ojibway nation, Lake Huron, Canada. Great Lakes Res 44(1):174–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jglr.2017.10.009
McCrimmon D (2002) Sustainable fisheries management in the great lakes: scientific and operational challenges. Lakes Reserv Res Manag 7:241–254
McLaughlin C, Krantzberg G (2012) An appraisal of management pathologies in the Great Lakes. Sci Total Environ 416:40–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2011.12.015
McNeil K (2007) The jurisdiction of inherent right aboriginal governments. All papers. 261. http://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/all_papers/261. Accessed 18 Apr 2018
Minnesota Sea Grant (2014, October 23) Lake Superior’s fish species. http://www.seagrant.umn.edu/fisheries/superior_fish_species. Accessed 5 Apr 2018
Nelson C, Stroink M (2014) Accessibility and viability: a complex adaptive systems approach to a wicked problem for the local food movement. J Agric Food Syst Community Dev 4(4):191–206. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2014.044.016
Nelson C, Lowitt K, Nagy M et al (2013) Future research approaches to encourage small-scale fisheries in the local food movement. J Agric Food Syst Community Dev 3(4):177–181. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2013.034.020
Norman E (2015) Governing transboundary waters: Canada, the United States, and indigenous communities. Routledge Press, New York
Olson J, Clay PM, da Silva P (2014) Putting the seafood in sustainable food systems. Mar Policy 43:104–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2013.05.001
Ontario Commercial Fisheries Association (n.d.) Quotas. http://www.ocfa.ca/fisheries-industry/quotas. Accessed 5 Apr 2018
Song A (2018) How to capture small-scale fisheries’ many contributions to society? – introducing the ‘value-contribution matrix’ and applying it to the case of a swimming crab fishery in South Korea. In: Johnson D, Acott T, Stacy N, Urquhart J (eds) Social well-being and the values of small-scale fisheries. Springer, Cham, pp 125–246
Song AM, Temby O, Krantzberg G et al (2017) Institutional features of U.S.-Canadian transboundary fisheries governance: organizations and networks, formal and informal. In: Temby O, Stoett P (eds) Towards continental environmental policy? North American transnational networks and governance. SUNY Press, Albany, pp 156–179
Stacey N, Steenbergen DJ, Clifton J et al (2018) Understanding social wellbeing and values of small-scale fisheries amongst the Sama-Bajau of archipelagic Southeast Asia. In: Johnson D, Acott T, Stacy N, Urquhart J (eds) Social well-being and the values of small-scale fisheries, Springer, Cham, pp 97–123
Suzuki D (2016, December 1) Reconciliation requires recognizing rights-based fishing. [Blog post]. http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/science-matters/2016/12/reconciliation-requires-recognizing-rights-based-fishing/. Accessed 5 Apr 2018
Tansey G, Worsley T (1995) The food system: a guide. Routledge Press, New York
The Lake Superior Partnership (2016) Lake Superior lakewide action and management plan 2015–2019. https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-10/documents/lake_superior_lamp_2015-2019.pdf. Accessed 5 Apr 2018
Tobias J (2015) We are the land: researching environmental repossession with Anishinaabe elders dissertation. Western University, London
Turner N, Berkes F, Stephenson J et al (2013) Blundering intruders: extraneous impacts on two indigenous food systems. Hum Ecol 41:563–574. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-013-9591-y
Acknowledgements
We are very grateful to all the research participants who contributed their time to be part of this project. We also acknowledge conceptual input from the Food: Locally Embedded, Globally Engaged (FLEdGE) research team. This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lowitt, K., Levkoe, C.Z., Song, A.M., Hickey, G.M., Nelson, C. (2019). Broadening the Knowledge Base of Small-Scale Fisheries through a Food Systems Framework: A Case Study of the Lake Superior Region. In: Chuenpagdee, R., Jentoft, S. (eds) Transdisciplinarity for Small-Scale Fisheries Governance. MARE Publication Series, vol 21. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94938-3_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94938-3_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-94937-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-94938-3
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)